More than $30,000 in cash, along with other items seized during the arrest of Brian Lee Palmer on Feb. 26, are displayed during a press conference at the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office made its largest drug bust in more than a decade last week.
Detectives and officers with the Sheriff’s Tactical Operation Patrol intercepted a drug shipment in South Charleston last Friday, seizing nearly half a million dollars in heroin, crystal methamphetamine, marijuana and cash.
Following an investigation, officers stopped and detained Bryan Lee Palmer, 43, of Montgomery, outside a South Charleston motel. Palmer admitted to having a loaded .45 semi-automatic handgun in his backpack without a concealed carry permit. He also told officers he was a convicted felon, according to a criminal complaint in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.
Officers executed a search warrant on Palmer’s backpack and another duffel bag he was carrying, and found roughly 710 grams of heroin valued at $142,000; 1,585 grams of crystal methamphetamine valued at $317,000; 764 grams of marijuana valued at $7,640; and $30,379 in cash.
Chief Deputy Mike Rutherford told reporters in a press conference Monday that Palmer has been “allegedly transporting quantities of drugs and money from North Carolina into Charleston.”
But investigators believe the drugs may have originated from Mexico…
