Two arrests, more expected after Reidsville drug sting operation

Jeffery Lamont Kaylor, 25, and Tyler Blackwell, 19, were arrested Saturday.

By: GoDanRiver Staff | GoDanRiver.com
Published: May 13, 2008

The Reidsville Police Department is cracking down on drug trafficking in the city through an undercover campaign.

Two Reidsville men were the first to be arrested in the campaign that began in September and ended in January.

Jeffery Lamont Kaylor, 25, of 208 S. Harris St., and Tyler Blackwell, 19, of 148 Stockton Road, were arrested Saturday.

Both were charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine (Blackwell two counts and Kaylor one count) and with selling and delivering cocaine (Blackwell two counts and Kaylor one count), according to an arrest report from the Reidsville Police Department.

Both of the men are being held under a $10,000 secured bail in the Rockingham County jail. They are scheduled to appear in court July 7.

Rather than doing a one-day roundup of all the offenders identified in the campaign, police will locate and arrest the suspects over a period of several days, according to Capt. Guilio Dattero, a spokesman for the Reidsville Police Department.

Dattero said the department wants to concentrate on one or two offenders at one time to help “facilitate the investigative and interrogation process.”

“We want to get one or two as we go, at different intervals,” he said. “We’re trying to identify other perpetrators through these arrests.”

During the campaign, Dattero said an undercover officer would come into the police department for duty once, twice or three times a week. The officer would go out on the streets and make hand-to-hand crack cocaine transactions with offenders.

The department was aware of all of the offenders involved, he said.

The undercover officer went to areas of the city where drug dealers conduct their transactions in “open-air” markets, Dattero said.

“When you eliminate these open-air areas, drug use and drug sales go down,” he said.

Police identified the areas in the city with open-air markets through Crime Stopper’s tips, anonymous phone calls to authorities and concerns voiced by residents at community watch meetings, Dattero noted.

“The watch groups have been a great sounding board for where we need to go,” he said, adding the information the police department receives from the community watch groups has noticeably increased over the past year.

Staff writer Miranda Baines can be reached at mbaines@reidsvillereview.com or 349-4331, ext. 35.