Drug task force investigating more cocaine cases lately
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The head of the area’s drug enforcement agency says cocaine is a growing concern in the area.
In the past two weeks, the Tuscarawas County Grand Jury has indicted three individuals for cocaine trafficking. In two of those cases enough cocaine was recovered to warrant first-degree felony charges.
“Typically our main drug we were seeing around here is meth as well as fentanyl-heroine,” said Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Detective Cole Morris, the commander of the LEAD Drug Task Force. “The fentanyl-heroine is still around but not as bad. We are definitely seeing a rise in the cocaine around here. I can’t really explain why that is.”
Morris says the Drug Task Force is fielding and seriously investigating complaints, but drug investigations take time.
“It’s not a fast-moving process,” he said. “A lot of times people will call in a complaint and maybe get upset or disgruntled whenever they don’t see results the next day or the coming days. It’s definitely a timely process to fully investigate because we don’t want to jump ahead of ourselves and end up not getting a successful case or prosecution in the case.”
Three recent investigations have led to grand jury indictments for cocaine trafficking. In one, Morris says undercover task force members purchased cocaine three times from a Dover man within 1,000 feet of an elementary school. In another, investigators determined a New Philadelphia man sold cocaine to a teen who died from an overdose. Uhrichsville police initiated the third case when they found a large quantity of cocaine during a traffic stop. Those three cases are all under consideration in Tuscarawas Common Pleas Court.