By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - Cass County Drug Enforcement Team's first nine months have proven “extremely effective” in combating the sale, manufacture and use of illegal narcotics, Sheriff Joseph M. Underwood Jr. reported Thursday to the Board of Commissioners.
The sheriff said a three-pronged approach of public awareness, inter-agency cooperation and prompt action on citizen tips should be borne out not only in the statistics in this report, but in the future and in the quality of life in each county neighborhood affected by problems associated with drugs.
Through Sept. 30 there were 178 arrests on 289 charges, including 229 felonies, 52 misdemeanors and 37 others.
Arrests of 124 men included 94 white males, 29 black males and one Hispanic male.
Arrests of 41 women included 36 white females, three black females, no Hispanic females and two others.
The Dowagiac ZIP code yielded the most arrests, 44, followed by Cassopolis (39), Marcellus (16), Edwardsburg (13), Vandalia (13), Niles (7), Jones (7) and Union (7), Decatur (2) and White Pigeon (1).
Forfeitures by the drug team included $36,329.82 cash and property valued at $12,116, with another $568 cash pending and $27,890 property pending.
Street value of narcotics seized was $1,241,472,62, according to the report.
Narcotics seized in Dowagiac included 97.51 pounds of marijuana (239 plants), 35.48 grams of cocaine, one gram of methamphetamine and five pills. The total quantity confiscated is 118.33 pounds of marijuana, 150.08 grams of cocaine, 22.77 grams of meth, 1,049 pills and 748 marijuana plants.
The team, shared by the Sheriff's Office and Dowagiac Police Department, began 2005 with three new investigators added to two investigators already in place. The selection process began in October 2004, enabling the five investigators, clerical staff and drug prosecutor to be in place by January.
Initial equipment purchases included vehicles, surveillance equipment and a computer data base. Underwood said these acquisitions have been essential in prosecuting defendants as well as keeping track of the unit's activities. Future acquisitions will include additional surveillance equipment and covert communication equipment.
Each investigator has been certified in narcotics investigation by either state or federal trainers.
Every investigator also received certification in methamphetamine laboratory dismantling.
Team supervisors were given 40 hours of supervisory training by federal officials.
Investigators were also trained this year in many other areas, such as information management, intelligence management, major crimes seminars and intelligence data base processing.