The Buchanan County Drug Strike Force said out of more than a dozen search warrants executed so far this year in St. Joseph there is no centralized part of town for drug activity.
“Drug houses are not just common in the mid-town area or the south end area, they’re in the north end, the east end. From the poorest neighborhood to the richest neighborhood we encounter drug users or people involved in the distribution,” said Lt. Shawn Collie with the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force. “Drug arrests occur every day in St. Joe or Buchanan County. That’s something that’s not uncommon.”
Since January there have been several drug raids in St. Joseph where the Special Response Team had to be called in to assist with the execution of a search warrant.
Six individuals were arrested Wednesday during the execution of a methamphetamine warrant in 3800 block of King Hill Avenue. Last week, 10 people were taken into custody at a home in the 3000 block of Jules when investigators executed a methamphetamine related search warrant. In February the SRT was called in to assist with the execution of a search warrant at an apartment located in the 200 block of Arizona.
“Anytime you see houses that are considered as busy as they were considered it usually is associated with distribution,” said Collie.
Even though the number of warrants issued lately may seem like it’s increased because of the short time span between each raid, Collie said the overall pace is about normal.
“As far as actual search warrants where SRT has been used or what you’ve seen yesterday there’s been very few so far,” said Collie. “As far as search warrants being served since the beginning of the year you could probably figure a dozen to a couple of dozen have been done.”
He said sometimes drug investigations can be closed quickly, but other times it could take more than a year.
“Depending on the amount of people involved as well as the type of organization they have,” said Collie. “Usually what we try to prioritize is not necessarily by the drug itself but by the type of activity that’s going on with it.”
Collie said other issues that are involved with drug houses include individuals stealing and burglarizing homes to get things to trade for drugs and other similar issues that cause problems in the entire community.
“A lot of times with the use of methamphetamine, a lot of the complaints we start getting are neighbors finding syringes,” said Collie. “Then you get into the whole using syringes, the different types of diseases that are spread among drug users. So the drug house as a whole brings so many different issues for the community.”
Tips that lead investigators to closing cases come in from many different ways. Collie said anyone that wants to provide anonymous information should contact the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS. However, anonymous tips are more difficult to work with and require more in-depth investigation. Collie said it’s better for residents who are willing to talk to law enforcement officials about the problem to call the Drug Strike Force directly (816) 233-3377.