|
County police seize 42 pounds of pot
Porter County Sheriff's Department's new drug
interdiction program pays dividends
BY KEN KOSKY
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
VALPARAISO | Two Porter County police officers assigned
to stop the transportation of drugs on major roads
passing through the county arrested three people
Saturday and confiscated 42 pounds of marijuana from
their car. Arrested on felony charges of dealing
marijuana were Faviola Acosta-Lopez, 18, of Los Angeles,
Calif., Doarion Bennett, 25, of Los Angeles, Calif., and
Jesus M. Moreno, 18, of Compton, Calif. The
traffic stop was at 11 a.m. Saturday on the eastbound
Indiana Toll Road in the Chesterton area. Officers
Matt Edwards and Jason Praschak said they stopped a
Chrysler 300 for speeding and illegally tinted windows,
then got conflicting stories from the three occupants.
Edwards and his canine, Bandit, searched the car and
found 25 packages of marijuana, police said. Sheriff David Lain said police seized the marijuana,
valued at $1,000 a pound, and are looking into seizing
the car. Lain, who put extra officers on the road
to conduct drug interdiction, said intercepting drugs is
an important initiative because the region is known as a
pipeline through which drugs are transported.
"It's something that's frustrating to us in law
enforcement knowing we're a drug highway," Lain said.
"We want to hurt the drug trade in any way we can and
want them to know this is risky business and to be
afraid to come through Porter County. ... We are pleased
that this initiative has borne fruit so soon. The
program was only just begun a few weeks ago, and is
meant to show that we are ramping up the fight to keep
this material off the streets." In addition to
working the Toll Road, officers will be on other busy
roads like Interstate 94 and U.S. 30. Lain said Lake
County police and the Indiana State Police are among the
other agencies doing drug interdiction. Three weeks ago,
state police seized $109,020 from a vehicle after the
occupants denied ownership of it during a traffic stop
on the Toll Road in Chesterton. |
