Narcotics investigators in Westminster have seized almost $18,000 in crack cocaine and arrested more than 20 local drug dealers, including one who was charged for peddling crack from a Meals on Wheels van.
“This will go a long way to keep the streets of Westminster a lot safer because we constantly have crimes of violence that are associated with drugs,” State?s Attorney Jerry Barnes said during a Friday morning news conference.
Frederick Clark Campbell, 46, of Carroll Street, Westminster, was indicted by a grand jury for distributing crack at night from his Meals on Wheels vehicle, said Ned Coyne, a drug unit prosecutor for the state?s attorney?s office.
“He had our van because it was easier for him to keep the van in Westminster overnight and then pick up meals,” said Toni Gianforti, spokeswoman for Baltimore-based Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, where Campbell had worked since the early 1990s.
She said Campbell, who passed a drug screen last year, no longer delivers meals to the elderly and disabled for the nonprofit agency but has not been officially fired.
“At no time during the investigation were our clients, volunteers or employees placed in any situation that endangered their personal safety,” Gianforti said.
The county?s drug task force, comprised of local, county and state law enforcement, worked with undercover police from other parts of Maryland to buy drugs from street dealers in May, Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding said.
Dubbed “Operation Promise,” the investigation, which police started in February, led to 13 grand jury indictments, six search-and-seizure warrants and the arrests of 23 suspects, police said.
None of the drug dealers were in gangs, police reported, and the illegal operations appear unrelated.
Police stressed that investigations did not uncover any heroin or methamphetamine dealers in Westminster.
While police do see heroin use and overdoses in Carroll County, users leave the county to buy the drug in Baltimore, Westminster police Major Dean Brewer said.
