By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An investigation continues after the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force made two methamphetamine busts last week, taking meth off the street valued at an estimated $1.25 million.
Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Puett says members of the strike force first seized 25 pounds of meth as well as guns in the first bust and five more pounds in a follow up bust.
“Our guys have been really aggressive and very busy,” Puett tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “They’ve had some other substantial investigations that are ongoing involving opiates and pills and those types of things.”
Puett says the Drug Strike Force recently received a grant that allowed the county to hire three more strike force members, including one with a drug dog. The grant also paid for a prosecutor dedicated to dealing with illegal drug prosecutions.
The county has applied for a supplemental grant that would pay for two more investigators.
Puett says while this latest seizure has an estimated value of more than one million dollars, the cost of the illegal drug trade is harder to calculate.
“There’s a tremendous cost that we pay as taxpayers for this problem, but there’s a human cost when we see loved ones that become involved and addicted,” according to Puett.
Supply chain problems have disrupted the economy, but they don’t seem to be slowing down the drug trade.
“You may have trouble getting eggs, but I don’t think you’re going to have trouble getting meth,” Puett says he doesn’t mean to make a joke out of it. “It is disheartening to think that common, everyday things that we need and use we have supply chain issues and problems, but when it comes to illegal narcotics, they seem to be very abundant.”
Puett says he is limited to how much he can say about the meth busts, because the investigation is ongoing.