Kansas City, Mo. ? When police in Mulvane, Kan., decided to crack down on drug dealers in their small south-central Kansas town, they expected to find marijuana, cocaine and some prescription medicine.

What they didn’t expect was heroin – from a high school student.

“We had never seen it down here,” Mulvane Police Chief Dave Williams said. “Up to this point I knew that it had kind of made a comeback. And it was just a matter of time before it showed up here.

“But I was surprised that a high school kid sold it to us.”

Williams said four high school students were arrested this week for selling a variety of drugs with seven other people, including a 17-year-old who did not attend school.

Three of the students were being held Thursday in a juvenile facility in Wichita, and one bonded out, Williams said. The others were in their teens and 20s, he said. Most faced felony charges of selling a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school.

Heroin is available in Kansas, but it poses a low threat and is available “on a limited basis” in Kansas City and Wichita, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. The 2003 report said criminal groups from Mexico were the primary transporters of heroin in Kansas.