The local drug trade and the Detroit connection - WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

Police investigating drug-related crime, are finding that out-of-towners are often involved.

In our on-scene interviews with neighbors, we keep hearing buzzwords like "Detroit" and "drug dealers,"

After police investigations, many times, the neighbors are right.

"I think that everything that you're hearing is accurate," says Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini. "We'll actually find that a lot of our cases deal with connections out of Detroit."

Sheriff Donini says, in the last five years, heroin has made a comeback in the area, and so have Detroit drug dealers.

"We have to zero in on the source, to keep it from multiplying here locally, and that's hard to do, especially when they come-and-go, come-and-go."

As for why they make the six-hour drive, police say dealers have done their market research, and know where their product is wanted the most.

"Those that are persuading these dealers to come from Detroit, are our community members, who are addicts," says Sheriff Donini. "It's all about supply and demand."

Treatment for addicts can help bring down demand, and police can bust, or scare off, the suppliers. - Still, Sheriff Donini says the problem is so widespread that fixing it can take generations.

"It's gonna be a constant problem that I don't think will ever get resolved."