Asheville Police Plan To Emulate High Point Model ASHEVILLE -- Undercover High Point police officers could buy drugs at 16 crack houses in the city's West End neighborhood before May 18, 2004. A day later -- using a strategy being considered by Asheville police -- informants failed to find or buy drugs at any of the houses. Police say it took a meeting of nine people well-known in the West End drug scene to get things going in what has become known nationwide as the High Point model. [continues 1263 words]
ASHEVILLE - Carl Mumpower wasn't hard to spot during Friday night's Widespread Panic show at the Civic Center. Hundreds of concertgoers held up cutout masks of the city councilman who attended to observe what he considers a drug hot spot during large concerts. "His war on drugs is nothing more than a war on hippies," said James Lewis, an Asheville resident who made 250 of the cutout faces even though he was not attending the concert. Security was stepped up for the show, including the ban of large backpacks and inspections of smaller bags, because of concerns raised during last month's Ratdog concert, said city spokeswoman Lauren Bradley. Mumpower attended that concert, reporting that the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium "smelled like an Amsterdam hash bar." "I'm going to play this by ear," Mumpower said before Friday's concert. "I don't want to be predictable or convenient for those who want to uphold the drug culture in Asheville." Twenty officers operated within the arena during the show. Another unit patrolled the outside the Civic Center on foot with drug-sniffing dogs. By 10:30 p.m. officers had arrested four people on drug violations, Asheville Police Lt. Wallace Welch said. Two Colorado teens were charged with trafficking heroin, according to warrants. Other arrests included charges for possession of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. [end]
ASHEVILLE - Recent springlike weather was a welcome change for the group of kids playing outside the Lee Walker Heights community center. But for residents like Delores Fleming, the warm air often brings out the worst in her neighborhood - crime, drug dealing and more shootings. "You get a little antsy on the weekends," she said leaning over a chair in her kitchen and looking out the window at the group of children who frolicked nearby. Her fears are not without reason. The neighborhood of a few hundred residents lies in the center of Asheville - and at the center of the city's fight against drug crime, according to statistics city police compiled this month. [continues 672 words]
ASHEVILLE -- Changes for Buncombe County's main drug enforcement agency are in the works, Sheriff Van Duncan said Thursday. The sheriff, almost two months into his job as the county's top lawman, presented changes for drug enforcement during a presentation to the Council of Independent Business Owners. He said the Metropolitan Enforcement Group, also known as MEG, could be renamed and refocused to fight street-level and intermediate drug dealers. "We're hoping to become more effective," Duncan said. The agency is a cooperative effort between officers from the sheriff's department and the State Bureau of Investigation and is active in targeting large distributors. But with increased federal Drug Enforcement Agency presence in Buncombe County, MEG could be duplicating drug-fighting efforts, Duncan said. [continues 87 words]
ASHEVILLE - A city councilman who says police are doing too little to combat illegal drug sales drew criticism this week after officers said he had endangered their safety. Two officers, in e-mails to Chief Bill Hogan, said Councilman Carl Mumpower approached police three times during a traffic stop Friday outside the West Asheville police substation on Haywood Road. Sgt. Mike Yelton, in an e-mail to his supervisor, said Mumpower distracted an officer watching for signs of trouble in a stop that involved a cocaine seizure. [continues 338 words]
ASHEVILLE - Police released an array of statistics on drug arrests and seizures Tuesday that Chief Bill Hogan said show the city as a state leader in combating drug crime. Police compiled the numbers after taking criticism that too little is being done to stop drug dealing. "I just think there's been some public commentary whether the police department has been doing enough or not," Hogan said. "We have been aggressive." The statistics police compiled found Asheville in 2005 had the highest drug arrest rate of any of the state's 10 other largest cities. [continues 177 words]
Mayor: Mumpower's actions are 'overstepping' boundaries ASHEVILLE -- A city councilman who does his own drug stakeouts has found himself at odds with more than just dealers. Armed with pen and paper and still wearing coat and tie, Councilman Carl Mumpower has taken to parking near drug hot spots at night and jotting down notes of what he sees through the windshield. Mumpower says he's gathering proof that police are doing too little to combat drug crime. In two days last week, Mumpower says he saw 11 drug deals in public housing developments. Dealers approached him eight times, he said. "We're losing, we're not winning," Mumpower said. [continues 760 words]
ASHEVILLE - It has been a year since Carl Mumpower started handing out hundreds of anti-drug posters from the trunk of his car. Despite mixed reactions to the red posters from the Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission and not knowing whether the message is really getting out, Mumpower said he has no plans to stop. "We're pulling no punches with our posters," said Mumpower, chairman of the drug commission and city council member. "We're trying to pull the reality of hard drugs into the public eye." [continues 196 words]
ASHEVILLE - When Carl Mumpower returned from the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, he said he felt out of place and better equipped to deal with the uncertainties of combat than the stability of home. Advertisement He anticipates drug dealers transitioning from their illegal trade to honest jobs would face the same situation in a proposed program called "Job Won." The program, presented Tuesday at a meeting of the Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission, aims to help people move out of selling illegal drugs and into a job. [continues 229 words]
ASHEVILLE -- Even with North Carolina's success in cracking down on methamphetamine labs, law enforcement officers say they're facing new challenges in combating problems with the drug. A dramatic drop in meth lab busts has yet to translate into a decline in meth addictions. Meth makers also have been moving labs quickly from one place to another while finding ways to skirt a new state law restricting sales of cold medications containing pseudoephedrine, the drug's primary ingredient. Authorities so far this year have shut down 150 illegal labs, down from 231 during the same period of 2005, according to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. [continues 481 words]
Drug Commission Offers $1,000 Reward For Sellers' Arrests, Convictions ASHEVILLE - Catching a big fish in a little pond might sound like an easy thing to do. But when the big fish are big-time drug dealers and the pond is Asheville, it's not that easy of a task for communities and police. The Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission wants to give people an incentive for helping police arrest dealers who are selling large quantities of drugs, either directly to the public or to smaller, street-level dealers. The "Dealer Down" program was named to counter the phrase "man down" that dealers use when police are sighted near an area where drugs are being sold. The program will reward whistleblowers in the community $1,000 if a dealer possessing a half a kilogram, or 1.1 pounds, of hard drugs like cocaine, crack or methamphetamines is arrested. Another $1,000 will be rewarded if the same person is convicted. [continues 410 words]
