Officers round up drug suspects

Sheriff's deputies started rounding up county residents early Friday morning indicted by a Wilson County grand jury on various drug charges.

Sheriff Robert Bryan said the arrests were the result of a 10-month investigation by his department, with the assistance of the Lebanon Police Department and the 15th Judicial District Drug Task Force. Law enforcement officers were looking for 65 suspects.

"We started at 6 a.m. this morning," Bryan said Friday at around noon. "So far, we've picked up 30."

He said there's a reason the roundups happen so early in the morning.

"We like to catch them off guard, so we start at 5 or 6 a.m. when everybody's asleep," he said, adding that suspects offer little resistance when they are awoken by officers in the early morning. "You've got to consider the officers' safety."

As he spoke, one female suspect was being booked, while a young man with a large plastic bag of prescription pill bottles had his drugs returned to him and was released.

"He had valid prescriptions for those," Bryan said.

Bryan said a good number of the people picked up on Friday were so-called "frequent flyers," but not all.

"We've seen some of the same names and a wide range of new people," he said. "We've arrested people from one end of the county to the other. The majority have come from the middle of the county, and a few from the eastern part."

He said the roundup wouldn't have been quite so large or successful if not for the help of Lebanon police.

"Lebanon police really helped a lot," Bryan said. "We've all been looking at a lot of the same people and we put our heads together to make this a success."

At midday, the WCSD was still looking for suspects who had alluded them earlier in the day on Friday.

"This will continue for most of the day," Bryan said. "We'll get as many of them as we can. I'm sure we'll be at this most of the night as well."

Staff writer Mary Hinds may be reached at 615-444-3952, ext. 45 or maryhinds@lebanondemocrat.com.