Charleston , Kanawha County , West Virginia

Undercover police officers are taking to the streets of Charleston to get drugs off the streets. The Special Enforcement Unit is tackling a problem that's become an uphill battle.

Eyewitness News followed the officers as they followed-up on tips and complaints about drug activity in their neighborhood.

"Along with narcotics comes larger crime. Gun crime, personal crime, murders, and homicides," explained an undercover officer.

In a stop on Lee Street, officers found Nathan Jones who they had heard was dealing heroin. Officers didn't find heroin in the apartment but they did arrest him. They say he had marijuana in the apartment and violated his probation.

The unit says their biggest problem is a pipeline from Detroit and Ohio that brings in heroin, cocaine, and prescription drugs.

"You can probably attribute about ninety percent of all crimes back to prescription medication, and or street drugs involving heroin," explained Sgt. Tim Palmer from the Special Enforcement Unit.

It's a job that the officers don't take lightly. And one they hope to conquer by letting dealers know they are not welcome in Charleston.

"Just like they always say, ninety percent of the public are good people, ten percent make it bad for everybody. And we just want to keep that ten percent looking over their shoulder and scrambling around so they don't effect the other ninety percent," said Palmer.

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