Drug Death Related Task Force Introduced to Serve Sullivan County

A new task force specializing in drug related deaths has been introduced in Sullivan County.

During a press conference Tuesday, TBI Director David Rausch discussed some of the purposes and goals of the task force, which its primary goal is to pursue drug dealers distributing deadly drug combinations that contribute to the drug epidemic in the region. The task force is part of an initiative to support areas like Sullivan County, who are designated as High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.

“The idea (of this task force) is to be able to provide funding that will disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations as well as addressing the impacts and dangers of drugs,” Rausch said. Rausch highlighted several reasons Sullivan County was selected to create a task force, one of which includes the high rate of overdoses in the area, and another because of the needed help and desire by Sullivan County to solve the drug epidemic issues.

This is the second task force in the state funded by the Appalachia HIDTA initiative, the other task force funded by HIDTA located in Knox County. The Drug Related Death Task Force is a partnership between the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, 2nd Judicial District Drug Task Force, 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, Bristol, TN Police Department, Kingsport Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration, Tennessee National Guard, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sullivan County District Attorney Barry Staubus and Bristol Tennessee Police Chief Blaine Wade also spoke Tuesday, whose office and department recently concluded an overdose death investigation involving heroin laced with fentanyl that led to the indictment of Tonya Gray, who is accused of selling the drug to the victim.

“A reason I think we are the right location for this task force is the efforts of law enforcement. Our law enforcement agencies have been very aggressive in their investigations, and they have provided us very good cases to prosecute, which I laud them for their efforts of being so aggressive. Although it’s a need, we have demonstrated a desire to take on these cases, and our goal is to continue to aggressively investigate cases like the Tonya Gray case,” said Staubus.

Courtesy of Image: T.Adams/Supertalk 92.9