Photo: Courtesy of KYTV/KSPR.
The recent methamphetamine bust in Boone County is the second largest in Arkansas and the biggest in the western district of the state, according to 14th Judicial District Prosecutor David Ethredge of Mountain Home.
KYTV/KSPR report 24 people in Boone County were indicted, and $6.7 million worth of meth was taken off the streets.
Harrison Police Chief Chris Graddy says the last phase of the operation lasted a little over a year and a half, and this 149 pounds was part of this last phase of this investigation.
Boone County Sheriff Mike Moore says this was just one phase of a six-year investigation, and more than 100 people have been charged over that time period.
Law enforcement arrested three men in Boone County in April.
Ethredge says at that time that location was raided, the methamphetamine was found, and those individuals were subsequently arrested inside of Boone County.
Then in May a grand jury indicted 21 others in the Harrison area in connection with the large-scale drug trafficking conspiracy.
The prosecuting attorney said this bust would not be possible without the work of local law enforcement and the help of the federal government.
Ethredge says not only did the investigation get the methamphetamine off the street, it took cash from the bad guys that will be used to fight drugs, and it took vehicles from the bad guys that will be used to fight what’s happened.
He says the task force has evidence of where the drugs came from.
Ethredge says, “The methamphetamine that’s being dealt with by law enforcement today that we’re prosecuting is not being made locally. He says, “It’s being imported. We know from this particular case exactly how the traffic of this meth came in from this community: where it came out of Mexico, the line it took to get here.”
Moore says, “If anybody thinks we don’t have a border crisis, they’re ignorant. And it’s not just a border crisis, it’s a 50-state border crisis.”
And officials have a warning.
Moore says, “If they’re selling drugs in Boone County, they’re going to be next. They can count on it.”
The prosecuting attorney said there may be more to come with this investigation as it is ongoing.
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