WHITEHALL, Ohio — Drugs, guns and stolen tools were just some of the things confiscated by the Whitehall Division of Police during an undercover operation on Wednesday.
What started as a traffic stop ended with a felony arrest. Two people were arrested along with the confiscation of two guns and "a considerable amount of cocaine and heroin," according to Whitehall Police Sergeant Jonathan Earl.
“We have our detectives working in plain cars. They are looking for suspicious activity or drug deals that are going down throughout the city. We have our marked cruisers come in and stop them,” Earl explained.
During a drug blitz on Wednesday, Whitehall narcotics detectives, K9 officers and patrol officers focused on finding drivers who may have drugs on them.
“The majority of these crimes involving drugs lead to other crimes. They are involved with theft, they are involved in car thefts, they are involved in robberies, they are involved with shootings. These drugs are causing other crimes to occur,” Earl said.
Whitehall police have recovered 2,232 grams of crack already in 2022. For all of 2021, they seized 816 grams.
Police also recovered about as much LSD so far in 2022 as they did last year.
“Not only do we have our narcotics unit going after these drug dealers, we have strategic goals to take the drugs off the streets. We know where it leads to,” Earl said.
Officers noticed a van had a stolen license plate. Inside they found a gun, drug paraphernalia and cocaine. A juvenile inside tried to hide some of the drugs.
“Guns are what is the real problem on the street right now. Along with these drugs that we recover, most of the drug dealers are carrying guns as well,” Earl said.
With the focus on drugs, Whitehall is hoping to prevent other crimes and send a message.
“It sends a message to people that are out here doing this, that our Whitehall police are out here and they are looking for crimes before they happen. They are taking these people who are acting suspiciously and finding these guns and taking them off the streets,” Earl said.