JEFFERSON COUNTY (WSIL) - After months of investigations initiated by the Jefferson County Sheriff Department and Mt. Vernon Police Department's narcotics unit, Tuesday morning it came to a culmination with the enforcement of approximately 15 arrest warrants.
Mt. Vernon and Jefferson County law enforcement joined forces with ATF and US Marshals to conduct arrest and search warrants.
Mt. Vernon Police Chief, Trent Page, and Jefferson County Sheriff, Jeff Bullard, were on site for the initial search warrants. Bullard said, working with the US Marshals on initiatives like this has its benefits.
"They have great resources tracking wanted people," Bullard said. "And we have several wanted people we're looking for today. And they're a great resource to use and to work with."
And, Bullard said, because these criminals are often connected or communicate, the surprise tactic is often a useful method of operation.
"The ability to hit multiple targets at once and work together, like we did Tuesday morning, many times is crucial in being able to recover evidence at multiple locations, to be able to catch these wanted individuals, before they can get tipped off and flee. So, it has really worked well this morning," Bullard said.
Detective Corporal, Troy Hails, with the Mt Vernon Narcotics unit said these arrests are associated with felony narcotics cases or buys and several lead to further search warrants to be applied.
"Some of the arrest warrants lead to additional search warrants at the residences," Said Hails, "and with that, in just about every single house, we've come up with additional stuff. So, it's always productive when you're coming up with additional stuff."
A total of approximately 15 arrest warrants were served and due to the nature of these arrests, Hails said, it's proof that the law shouldn't let up on narcotics.
"I think this shows that we need to drive forward on charging the narcotics related stuff," Hails said. "It leads to other stuff. It leads to your shootings, it leads to your burglaries, it leads to all other crimes. It's proven. We need to push forward with charging narcotics in the way that we have been charging and not letting up."
Both local law enforcement agencies pointed out that serious legal work and strategic planning goes into a sweep like this one. The agencies involved say they're very conscious of constitutional rights and the process necessary for these warrants and arrests to take place.