FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ky. (WHAS11) – The group wore T-shirts branded with a nickname. A nickname that promoted their alleged success moving thousands of illegally purchased prescription pills thousands of miles to Kentucky. The group, at least 28 strong according to law enforcement, managed to elude capture for months. They call themselves, "The Untouchables."
Thursday, Franklin County Sheriff's Office made a major announcement: they had been tracking the group for six months.
"This thing's run very much like a business across Franklin County and going to Florida to get pills and bringing them back," said Sheriff Pat Melton.
Operation Untouchable led to the arrests of 28 people from Frankfort, Lexington, and Lawrenceburg. Sheriff Melton explained the group traveled to South Florida, a notorious haven for illegal pill mills, set up by fraudulent doctors in a lucrative prescription drug exchange, and brought back about $917,000 worth into Kentucky where they were sold on the streets.
Oxycondone was the most popular painkiller brought back. About 36,000 pills total were imported into Kentucky from a 1,000 mile pill pipeline over the course of 13 months since December 2010. It amounts to about 3,000 per month making it a huge smuggling operation. Law enforcement officials said it was one of the biggest they had ever been involved with.
"Everybody (used to have) weed, (used to have) cocaine, now everybody's got Percocet or Oxycodone," Sheriff Melton said. "It's pills, the pills are drastically overtaking any other drug."
Officials would not say how much money or how many pills had been recovered. The investigation continues.
The U.S. Marshals assisted in the roundup of much of the group. Six were arrested last week and several more were taken into custody beginning around 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Twenty-one of the 28 are in jail, and investigators continue to search for the remaining seven suspects.
Law enforcement officials said prosecutors went about the investigation in a creative way. Instead of making undercover drug buys, as usual, to arrest individuals, they investigated the 28 people as a group. At least five people must be implicated to carry the crime syndicate charge, according to Sheriff Melton.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office and the West Palm Beach Police in Florida assisted the Franklin County Sheriff's Office with the investigation.
The following list of names are the people facing charges of engaging in organized crime/criminal syndicate, a felony which carries a sentence of 10-20 years. Some of the group have already been convicted of felonies and some are related to one another.
Jason Allen Ware, 34 of Frankfort
Debra Q. Baker, 61 of Frankfort
Jodi L. Ware, 38 of Frankfort
Jeffrey Keith Ware, 31 of Frankfort
Henry Earl Penn, 47 of Frankfort
Jeff Allen Carrier, 43 of Frankfort
Elizabeth A. Cummins, 57 of Frankfort
Jessie Taylor Quire, 34 of Frankfort
Artis Ike "Peter" Quire, 43 of Frankfort
William Risque Beeler, 43 of Frankfort
Jason Corde Smith, 40 of Frankfort
Willis Earl Bickers, 31 of Frankfort
Douglas Robert Smith, 22 of Frankfort
Kelly Ray Smith, 38 of Lexington
Andrea Sue Corman, 33 of Frankfort
Aimee Denise Hockensmith, 27 of Frankfort
John Charles Herman, 30 of Lawrenceburg
Jason Thomas Dezarn, 32 of Lawrenceburg
Brian Keith Bobbitt, 41 of Frankfort
Michael Lee Baker, 44 of Frankfort
Floyd Thomas Quire, 49 of Frankfort
Angela Michelle Shelton, 41 of Frankfort
Mark Allen Perkins, 43 of Frankfort
John Wayne Wiley, 43 of Frankfort
Joe Quire, 28 of Frankfort
Shelly L. Hopper, 37 of Lawrenceburg
Bronson Dwayne Masters, 34 of Frankfort
