Heroin Bust In Bishopville

Written by

Brian Shane

BISHOPVILLE — Worcester County authorities arrested a man they identified as a high-level drug dealer, finding hundreds of bags of heroin and thousands in cash in his car on the way back from a supply run.

Police arrested 38-year-old Leck Lyons of Ocean Pines on Friday. Officers were following him on surveillance, and stopped his 2010 Kia Sportage at the intersection of Bishopville Road and southbound Route 113, as he left Delaware.

Lyons had been targeted during weeks of heroin investigations as a major heroin presence in the northern part of Worcester County. Police suspected he had been coming back from picking up the drugs in Philadelphia when they caught him.

“He was supplying dealers with heroin,” said Sgt. Nate Passwaters, who leads the county’s Criminal Enforcement Team. “He was a facilitator, making sure the dealers had what they had. That’s why it was a significant amount, and a significant arrest for us, as well.”

After a search of the car, police found 1,678 individually wrapped bags of suspected heroin and $2,020 in cash. Police said the heroin has an approximate street value of nearly $42,000.

According to police, this seizure is the largest heroin bust in recent history for Worcester County.

Police also went on to search Lyons’ residence on Windjammer Road in Ocean Pines, where they said they found seven more baggies of heroin.

Police also arrested his passenger in the car, 27-year-old Jayna Lynn Griffith of Ocean Pines. Lyons and Griffith both have been charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute and importation of heroin.

Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby called it a “very significant” drug arrest, one he expects will have a trickle-down effect.

“When you take this much heroin off the street, it results in a lack of supply,” he said, “which causes, hopefully, individuals to think of other methods of entertainment as opposed to using heroin.”

Lyons and Griffith are being held at the Worcester County Jail on a $100,000 and $50,000 bond, respectively, awaiting a Nov. 20 preliminary court hearing in Snow Hill District Court.

During the execution of the search-and-seizure warrants, the Worcester County Criminal Enforcement Team was assisted by the Ocean City Police Department Narcotics Unit, Worcester County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division, Ocean Pines Police Department, Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office, ATF and DEA Salisbury Post of Duty.

Heroin-related drug crimes have more than doubled in 2012, police said, the result of a crackdown on prescription painkiller abuse. Former painkiller addicts are turning to a cheaper and more readily available heroin supply, police said.

“The ones we arrest, we interview them, and they tell us, ‘yeah, I was on pills, and I couldn’t find any more pills, so I started using heroin.’ And the heroin’s much cheaper than the pills,” Passwaters said.

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