CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Horry County Solicitor Jimmy Richardson says drug traffickers are receiving longer prison sentences than they used to, in some cases up to twice as long.
Richardson says he saw four drug trafficking cases just last week, two of them involving heroin, in which each defendant was sentenced to between 10 and 25 years in prison.
“You’ve got people who are making money and destroying lives,” he said.
According to Richardson, a little over a year ago, these men may have only faced a maximum of 10 years in prison. He says his office’s drug team is taking precautions to get drug traffickers off the streets.
“We certainly segregate the drug traffickers. If you’re drug trafficking, we take a special hard look at that,” reveals Richardson.
Richardson says more drug traffickers are getting up to 30 years in prison, especially those carrying heroin and other opiates. Drug dealers like Desmond Collins and Kneshon Pino, who were sentenced for trafficking heroin, were sentenced to 25 and 15 years respectively.
“It’s going to continue until we get a hold over this thing,” promises Richardson. “Until people start realizing that this isn’t the place to sell this poison. We wanted to drive up the cost of doing business in [drugs] and I think we have more than done that.”
Richardson says locking up more drug traffickers for longer wouldn’t just lower the amount of drug crime in Horry County, but could also reduce other crimes, “probably 75% of the property crime, maybe 40% of the violent crime. We’d be out of a job.”
Once the drug dealers are jailed, Richardson assures Horry County residents these convicts will all serve the bulk of their sentences.
“Those are real years. That isn’t where you can say, ‘Oh, they’ll be out in a third or a fourth of the sentence.’ They’re going to serve at least 85% before they become eligible for parole,” assures the solicitor.
