A week after announcing they’ve won federal recognition as a high-intensity drug trafficking area, top local law enforcement officials gathered today (Tuesday) at a press conference. They’re warning drug cartels it will be harder to do business in St. Joseph County.
Kicking off the press conference at the county sheriff’s department was Chip Cook, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s Merrillville office. He said the designation by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy resulted from longstanding collaboration among area police departments, federal agents and prosecutors.
Cook said the county’s location also was a factor.
”Drug dealers from Chicago, Indianapolis and Detroit are traveling here to St. Joseph County and northcentral Indiana, to be supplied with the plethora of drugs that they will then take back to their cities," Cook said. "Law enforcement here in St. Joseph County in the past three years we have seized record amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl.”
Sheriff Bill Redman said he’ll use the new federal money partly to pay overtime hours to patrol the Toll Road.
“So we’re looking to increase our visibility more through our traffic unit and to look for people trying to transport those illegal drugs through St. Joseph County,” Redman said.
