By FRANK LEWIS
PDT Staff Writer

"We got a major player with this arrest," said Portsmouth Police Department Narcotics Agent Todd Bryant. "Personally, this is the largest amount that I have ever seized here in Scioto County in the way of one individual amount of Oxy's seized at one time."

Bryant placed bag after bag of Oxycontin tablets neatly divided into vacuum sealed bags on a table in the evidence room at the Portsmouth Police Department.

"We have arrested Donald Lee Ulmer, 38, of Detroit (Mich.). He is giving a Cincinnati address, but Nov. 4 he was up in Detroit, and had paperwork in his vehicle indicating he came from Detroit."

Bryant said officers found 909 80-milligram Oxycontin tablets and 150 40-milligram Oxycontin tablets in a 2005 Dodge Magnum.

Bryant said officers lifted prints off the vehicle and sent them to the FBI for identification.

Bryant said Ulmer is being charged with 174 times bulk amount, and in the state of Ohio, that places him under what is called a major drug offender, which is a mandatory ten years incarceration.

"We had received information that he was passing through town and making a stop here in the city to drop off some Oxycontin, then going on to West Virginia where he stays and comes back and makes some deliveries around town," Bryant said. "We set up with the Highway Patrol, located him at a traffic stop, and subsequently from there we had already received information as to where he was hiding the drugs."

Bryant said the pills totaled 76,000 milligrams and sells for a dollar a milligram on the street, which gives the stash a street value of $76,000.

"We are preparing a case to present to the (Scioto County) grand jury this Friday due to the amount of drugs involved, and really not knowing where he's from," Bryant said. "And once we do identify where he's from -- Detroit, we're just trying to get the case processed as fast as possible."

Bryant was asked if he would be considered a flight risk.

"I would consider him a flight risk, but the bond issue is set by the judges and Judge (Russell) Kegley has arraignments and he will set the bond and then Common Pleas Court will continue, enhance or reduce the bond there," Bryant said.

At his appearance in Portsmouth Municipal Court Wednesday morning, bond was set at $500,000, and he is scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 14.

Bryant said the police department had been receiving information for almost a year that a "Lee" from Detroit comes into town, makes deliveries, picks up his weights, picks up his money, and then returns to Detroit.

"In this particular case, we were told he was coming from Cincinnati, so we set up here on U.S. 23 and made a traffic stop on 18th Street by the Life Center where he picked someone up. That's when we initiated the traffic stop," Bryant said.

According to the police report, a female parked a vehicle behind his, then got into his car, and that's when officers approached the vehicle.