Hazard woman charged after Laurel Street search warrant uncovers meth trafficking

Hazard police executed a search warrant at Mary Phillips’ Laurel Street residence on April 29 after an investigation that led to trafficking-related charges, including methamphetamine trafficking. HPD Office Lucas Davis wrote the citation in the case, linking the charges to a specific police investigation in Hazard.

Phillips is 63 and lives on Laurel Street in Hazard, the seat of Perry County. For city residents, the case is the kind that lands close to home, because it developed at a named residence in a neighborhood where police say narcotics enforcement often begins with an investigation and ends with a warrant.

The Hazard Police Department is the primary local law-enforcement agency for the city. County records say the department has 22 police officers, six communication officers and a chief communications officer. Two officers are assigned to drug task forces, one with U.N.I.T.E. and one with A.H.I.T.D.A., underscoring how much of the department’s workload is tied to controlled-substance cases.

The Laurel Street case comes as Kentucky continues to face a heavy drug-overdose toll. The state’s 2024 overdose fatality report said fentanyl was present in 62.3% of overdose deaths, while methamphetamine was present in 50.8%. In a county where the 2020 census population was 28,473, those figures help explain why a meth trafficking allegation in Hazard draws immediate attention from neighbors and local officials alike.

Hazard police were accredited by the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police in June 2007, a marker of the department’s formal standing as it continues to handle drug investigations across the city. The Laurel Street warrant shows the path such cases can take: police gather information, a judge authorizes a search, officers execute the warrant at a specific address, and charges follow if evidence supports them.

The case will now move through the court process, where the trafficking-related allegations will be addressed under Kentucky law. For Perry County residents, the immediate facts are clear: the warrant was served at Mary Phillips’ home on Laurel Street, and methamphetamine trafficking is among the charges tied to the Hazard Police Department investigation.