Department Of Justice Asked To Investigate Former Chief Of Police For Alleged Drug Trafficking.

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 29, 2008 – Charleston WV - There is an old saying that states everyone has skeletons in their closet. It appears Kent Carper’s may be starting to talk. According to reports, in late September of 1986 the former chief of police directed lead drug unit officer Terry Sayre to make contact with a Florida DEA undercover operative who had previously worked in Charleston and order up a crack cocaine dealer. Details show that Darrell Paige of Jacksonville Florida made the 600-mile journey and met with drug unit officers posing as drug dealers. Paige sold undercover officers a $300 sample of the drug with a promise to return with larger supplies for sales on the street. The sample tested positive as crack according to Officer Steve Utt, who now works for the DEA.

When Jacksonville Florida DEA agents Jerry Rinehart & John Burns learned of the details behind Kent Carpers plot they quickly shut the operation down. Rinehart, then resident agent in charge of the Florida office angrily called WV authorities and allegedly stated “this will never occur while I am alive.” And, “why would anyone introduce a drug to a city that did not have the problem?”  Darrell Paige was later arrested by Florida authorities for conspiracy to traffic in cocaine and received three years in prison. That case is 8702767 – Duval County FL.

What officials had not anticipated was drug dealing associates of Paige learned that Charleston West Virginia was “crack free” so they made the trip to Charleston and set up a drug network selling crack cocaine on city streets. In the end, former Chief of Police Carper got his wish. Carper later resigned when his long-time friend and former mayor Mike Roark was arrested and convicted on cocaine charges in late 1988. Carper, who also is an attorney, former prosecutor and emergency director, is currently the President of the Kanawha County Commission in WV.

The FBI has not commented on the request for them to investigate.

For more information go to:  

http://www.kanawhacountyblog.blogspot.com/