Drug bust nets 21

More than $11,000 seized, along with nine types of drugs, in three-month concerted effort

By Jennifer Squires
Ashland Daily Tidings

Among the evidence taken in a three-month drug sting operation are $11,683 in cash and nearly two pounds of marijuana. Photos by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings

From time to time, business owners on the Plaza will call the Ashland Police Department to report suspicious activity. They think they’ve seen someone buying drugs, but it can be difficult for police to follow up on, especially when the downtown area bustles with people during the tourist season.

So, instead of waiting for the citizen reports, the Ashland Police Department dedicated a pair of patrol officers to a three-month anti-crime push to identify and arrest drug dealers.

Using information the APD and other law-enforcement agencies had already collected via tips, undercover operations and observation, officers Damian Amarillas and Suzanne Wesel arrested 21 people on 81 felony charges during the special operation that ended in the middle of June.

“A lot of this tied into what we’re trying to do to clean up the downtown area,” APD Sgt. Teresa Selby said.

The three-month program focused on small-time dealers who frequent the downtown area. The two officers wrote 10 warrants and served eight of them. The final two suspects fled town before police could track them down and make the arrests.

“I think if there was more time and more bodies, it would open up to bigger cases and maybe the distributors,” Wesel said.

The officers seized marijuana — including two grows with 24 mature plants and 12 starter plants — psilocybin mushrooms, hash, opium, LSD, heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy. They also recovered stolen property, a firearm with the serial number sanded off and $11,683 in cash.

More work

The officers would like to see an anti-crime team as a long-term program within the department that could delve deeper into the drug world and have a more permanent effect on drug activity in Ashland.

Drug money confiscated by APD

“I think it basically will be a short-term result,” Wesel said. “I think for a while, just based on community comment and officer observation, it slowed down.”

However, activity in the downtown area is already picking up again, less than a month after the anti-crime operation ended. Both officers have been assigned to other duties, and no one else has been dedicated to the project.

“It was very effective, but it was too much of a draw on patrol to take two people off,” Selby said.

With more time and more officers involved, the results of the operation could have been even more dramatic. As it was, the pair served about as many warrants in three months as the entire department does in a year, according to Selby.

“They were in a position where, if there were five more people in the unit, they would have done five times as much,” Selby said. “There’s a lot of work.”

One element

While Ashland is not void of methamphetamine users, this anti-drug push focused on marijuana and hallucinogens to have a greater impact in the community. Most of the work the anti-crime team did centered on eliminating the street-level marijuana and hallucinogen dealers because of the popularity of those drugs in the area.

It was the first time APD officers have been put out in the field with that specific goal, and it appeared to catch dealers off-guard.

“From the people we arrested, there was definitely a shock that we were from the Ashland Police Department,” Amarillas said, adding the police also got some surprises as they identified people involved with the drug scene. “There were people you would not suspect. It’s not just the rundown house and the trashy yard.”

For example, a pair sold mushrooms and marijuana out of their van. In another case, a father-son team worked together. One person arrested moved a pound of marijuana a week.

“You just kind of move up the food chain to bigger and bigger fish,” Selby said.

Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or jsquires@dailytidings.com.