Nola Sizemore

Staff Writer

Council members and residents attending a meeting of the Loyall City Council on Monday gave Police Chief Mike Lunsford a round of praise and applause for his recent efforts in a drug roundup, which netted a total of 40 warrants and three juvenile petitions.

“Mike put in a lot of his own time on this drug roundup,” said Mayor Clarence Longworth. “This investigation had been on-going for approximately one year. It had to be kept quiet in order to keep the investigation going. I’m very proud of Mike and our other officer Denny Jones. Mike had been tremendous in training officer Jones, who has not been to the police academy yet. I hope the residents of Loyall keep supporting Mike and call Mike or email him when they see something going on. They don’t have to leave their name, they can stay anonymous if they like. We just want to clean our city up from illegal activity.”

Lunsford said the roundup included buys for drugs such as Suboxone, oxycodone, hydrocodone, marijuana and many others illegal drugs, and approximately $4,100 was used during the investigation for these drug buys.

“There was a lot of time and work involved in this roundup,” said Lunsford. “There’s a lot of paperwork and leg work involved.”

Loyall Church of God Pastor Billy Owens said he was proud of the efforts Lunsford put into arresting drug dealers in the city. He said he had previously worked with UNITE and is familiar with the ways people find to abuse drugs.

“Of course, there are those who just sell drugs to make a profit, not because they have an addiction,” said Owens. “One of our duties as a church is to learn more about drug addiction. The Loyall Police Department has done a good job of getting people off the streets and you never know it might change some of them to not come back and do it again.”

Longworth had mugshots of all those arrested in the city for residents and council members to take copies so that they may identify these people if they see them engaged in other illegal activity and report it to the police department.

“I’ve had a lot of people call me and tell me they are sure glad this was done — and I am too,” said council member Elvin Smith.”

Anyone wishing to report illegal activity in the city may email Lunsford at loyallpd@harlanonline.net or loyallpd212@yahoo.com. Lunsford said all information is kept strictly confidential.

Contact Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or at nsizemore@heartlandpublications.com