Brothers busted for heroin

BERKELEY SPRINGS - Two brothers were arrested after an undercover deputy with the Morgan County Sheriff's Department purchased heroin from one of them, Sheriff Vince Shambaugh said Wednesday.

William Ambrose and Kelly Ambrose were both arrested Monday as part of an ongoing drug investigation, which also yielded additional suspicious substances from their car, Shambaugh said.

Deputies had made arrangements with "a subject identified as William Ambrose to purchase 5 grams of heroin for the sum of $500," Shambaugh said.

A deputy met the brothers near Berkeley Springs, where he purchased 3.5 grams of a substance that field-tested positive for heroin, he said.

The purchase was made from Kelly Ambrose, Shambaugh said.

"Directly after the transaction, the vehicle operated by the Ambrose brothers was stopped by Morgan County sheriffs' deputies," he said, and Kelly and William Ambrose were arrested for delivery of a controlled substance.

Police searched the vehicle and the men, and the $500 was recovered, Shambaugh said.

He said the deputies also located and confiscated an "additional 32 capsules containing a brown substance and miscellaneous pills" from the brothers' car.

These substances are being sent to the crime lab for official identification, Shambaugh said.

Both men were taken to the Eastern Regional Jail, where they remained in custody Wednesday night.

Shambaugh said these arrests occurred just two days after his department's SWAT team, investigative and patrol deputies successfully served two separate and simultaneous drug search warrants.

"My office is actively investigating several drug cases, and I anticipate many more warrants and indictments in the near future. There are bigger things to come," he said.

Unfortunately, heroin is not uncommon locally, according to Shambaugh, who said he deals with it far more frequently than he would like as a law enforcement officer.

"Heroin is now our main non-prescription problem in Morgan County. Folks usually graduate from pain killers to heroin, and that's when we have to deal with the overdoses," Shambaugh said.

It's become more of a problem in the last three to four years, he said.

"It's really a matter of supply and demand," Shambaugh said. "We're catching dealers who make multiple trips in a week or month to Baltimore to get this stuff because they know they can get rid of it."