Pasco County deputies arrest 62 in 2-day drug sweep

In a two-day, street-level drug sweep, Pasco County deputies arrested 62 suspects on 170 charges, Sheriff Bob White announced today.

The sweep was conducted Saturday and Monday, concluding a six-month operation by vice and narcotics detectives.

"Drugs happen to be the fuel that drives the crime engine," said Sheriff Bob White. "...This is just a continuing effort to make sure our streets are free from drugs."

Arrests included charges of trafficking in a controlled substance, sale and possession of a controlled substance, sale and possession of crack cocaine, sale and possession of marijuana, sale of MDMA (ecstasy), obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, doctor shopping, and felon in possession of a firearm.

Some of the arrests also included enhanced charges for selling drugs near churches, a convenience store and a day care.

New Port Richey Police assisted both in manpower and with their holding cells.

The majority of cases involve obtaining controlled substances illegally, or the sale of prescription narcotics, according to sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll, who added that this trend continues to grow.

"It's definitely becoming a pressing issue," said vice and narcotics Lt. Chuck Balderstone. "Probably 80 percent of these cases involve the sale of prescription drugs. I would say that's pretty alarming."

The seizure of prescription narcotics sold and obtained illegally in Pasco has increased by approximately 20 percent from last year, Doll said.

So far this year, the Vice and Narcotics Unit has seized 11,211 doses of controlled pills with a street value of $150,000, he said. During that time, excluding the new arrests,

Detectives have initiated 1,553 drug cases and arrested 681 suspects.

The most highly abused and sought after pills appear to be Roxicodone, oxycodone, methadone and Xanax.

Pills usually sell for about $10 apiece.

Not only are users popping the pills, they're snorting them and shooting them up, he said.

"It's the modern day heroin," Balderstone said.

Some users start out using the drugs for a legitimate reason but more and more detectives are starting to see users - younger people - use them just for their altering effects, Balderstone said.

And many get the drugs legally, said White. They go "doctor shopping" with a tale of pain and end up with prescription and then sell the medication instead.

White said that Florida is one of the leading states of doctor shoppers. In south Florida, the prescription medication market is so bad a Broward County grand jury recently met on the topic and made an 18-point set of recommendations expected to deter abuse of pain medication and clean up the proliferation of so-called "pill mills." The jury said that the "mills" dispense legal prescription medication for illegal uses

The most significant recommendation made by the grand jury is that the state fund and implement the recently enacted Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, an electronic database doctors and pharmacists can use to track drug dispensing. The initiative was signed into law earlier this year. It will make it easier to identify those patients, who doctor shop, the jury said. Many other states already have such databases.

White said the sheriff's office will continue putting pressure on drug dealers - of prescription medications or others like cocaine - big and small.

Vice detectives made the largest cocaine bust in the agency's history earlier this year. So far this year, Pasco sheriff's office detectives have seized more than $3 million in cash and 67,620 grams of cocaine, or approximately 68 kilos