Chief Joesph M. Irvin said this week that  individuals arrested by the Russell Springs Police Department were recently indicted by a federal grand jury.

He said the drug related arrests have been as recent as this month and as long ago as last fall.

Irvin said that Michael Coppler, 38, of Jamestown was arrested the 30th of March this year and has been indicted for knowingly conspiring with others to possess with the intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.

Irvin said this indictment came out of Tennessee, where Coppler allegedly had been getting marijuana and bringing it to this area.

The chief said that arrest was a product of an interstate cooperative effort.

Irvin said that Brian Hash, 30, of Campbellsville was arrested on the 13th of March and has been indicted for knowingly and intentionally possessing, with the intent to distribute Oxycodone, a schedule II controlled substance.

Hash had been stopped by Russell Springs Sgt. Melissa Taylor and Irvin said that over 100 of the 80-milligram prescription drugs were found in his possession.

Under the driver's seat of the vehicle Hash was driving at the time of his arrest, was a loaded 9mm semi-automatic handgun, the chief reported.

“A passenger in the vehicle said that when they saw the blue lights behind them he took the gun out of the glove box,” Irvin said. “But before the office got out he slid the weapon under his seat.”

A search of Hash's residence yielded other evidence, Irvin said. Other powerful drugs including a new methadone replacement drug,  Suboxone, was found in a safe along with a high powered semi-automatic rifle and a larged quantity of cash.

An arrest in 2009 resulted in another arrest before the first of this year and both individuals were indicted in the federal system recently, Irvin explained.

Ricky Jones, 35, of Jamestown was taken into custody last October when 78 Oxycodone pills were found in the truck he'd been driving. Along with drugs and cash, Irvin said other evidence was found that lead to more serious charges than the possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Irvin said Jones kept a diary of previous trips to bring drugs into the county, which showed as many as 700 pills a week had been coming into the county due to Jones' efforts.

Officer Nathan Bradshaw ts

He said that evidence with statements police have taken resulted in a charge of conspiracy to possess & distribute a controlled substance.

That arrest also lead to the December arrest of Bryan Douglas Popplewell, 31, of Louisville and previously of Eli Community.

The chief said his arrest halted one of the “wholesale” sources of Oxycodone that had been providing drugs to this part of the commonwealth.

The federal charge Popplewell was indicted on was conspiracy to possess & distribute a controlled substance.

This investigation and other drug investigations continue Irvin said.