Perry County deputies charge three in separate drug trafficking cases

Perry County deputies charged three people with drug trafficking in separate investigations that put methamphetamine and fentanyl back at the center of local enforcement efforts.

In one Jan. 15 case, Deputy Chris Jones said he was traveling on Harveyton Road in Bonnyman when he passed an ATV. Jones wrote the citation in that case, one of several enforcement actions that led to trafficking charges. The separate investigations point to more than one incident, more than one location, and more than one suspect, underscoring how narcotics cases in Perry County often move from roadside contact or patrol work into criminal court.

Another Perry County Sheriff’s Office case unfolded Jan. 19 in the Airport Subdivision, where deputies executed a search warrant at a residence and reportedly recovered about 62 grams of methamphetamine and more than 3 grams of fentanyl. The seizure added another significant drug case to the county’s docket and showed that deputies were pursuing both traffic-based encounters and warrant-driven searches as part of the same broader enforcement push.

The charges are allegations, not convictions, and the court process will determine what happens next for the people accused. Still, the cases reflect the kind of drug work that often shapes day-to-day public safety concerns in Perry County, where small, highly specific investigations can carry larger consequences for neighborhoods, jail operations and the county court system.

Sheriff Joseph Engle leads the Perry County Sheriff’s Office, which has remained a steady presence in local drug enforcement. The recent cases land in a Kentucky public health landscape where fentanyl and methamphetamine continue to drive serious concern. The Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy reported that fentanyl was involved in 79.1% of overdose deaths in 2023 and methamphetamine in 55.2%. Kentucky recorded 1,439 overdose deaths in 2024 after corrections, down from 2,020 in 2023.

For Perry County, those numbers help explain why a citation on Harveyton Road and a search warrant in the Airport Subdivision drew attention. They are local cases, but they also fit a larger pattern of trafficking enforcement tied to substances that remain among the deadliest in Kentucky.