Feds to seize homes used by drug ring, accused killer of Big Stone Gap officer

ABINGDON, Va. (WRIC) — Federal authorities have moved to seize two homes in rural western Virginia used by the accused killer of a Big Stone Gap police officer and an alleged ring of narcotics traffickers.

The homes, both on Orr Street towards the northern end of Big Stone Gap, have been named as “defendants” in a civil forfeiture case — a civil action by the government alleging that the property in question was used for or was the fruit of a crime, and is therefore forfeit.

The two properties, federal prosecutors wrote, were known as the “Red House” and “White House” to the members of an alleged drug ring in Big Stone Gap.

One of the men who frequented the two homes is now awaiting trial for the shooting death of Michael Chandler, a Big Stone Gap Police Officer. Michael White will likely face trial in June, but in a jailhouse in December 2021, White indicated that the houses had been a nexus for the ring’s drug sales.

“I was trapping that motherf—-r out. I was punishing Orr Street,” White said. “I was moving. I was working some dope out that b—h.”

The owners of the house, prosecutors wrote, are Eddie Glenn Westmoreland and Tiny Westmoreland. According to the forfeiture claim, the Westmorelands allowed their daughter, Tina Westmoreland, to stay in one of the homes rent free, and that they knew Tina was engaged in drug dealing.

“Eddie and Tiny Westmoreland never called police, charged folks with trespassing, or took any legal action against most of the individuals at the property,” prosecutors wrote.

Still, prosecutors made no allegation that Eddie and Tiny Westmoreland were themselves involved in the crimes committed at the property, nor did they make any allegation that they profited from the drug dealing going on at the homes — in fact, prosecutors noted that the residents of the homes frequently stole power tools and other personal property from them, and that Eddie Westmoreland frequently had to clean drug paraphernalia and other trash out of the homes.

An affidavit from a federal officer filed alongside the forfeiture motion noted that Eddie Westmoreland had run accused killer Michael White off the property.

“Eddie told White he could not stay at his properties and had to go,” the agent wrote.

The agent also noted that Westmoreland claimed never to have seen anyone using or selling drugs firsthand.