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- Thirty drug suspects will continue to move forward in the court system following drug sting
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DRUG SWEEP LAST WEDNESDAY • Juab and Sanpete Counties Joint drug task force arrested many in our communities last Wednesday that are alleged to be drug dealers. Above task force personnel take Cameron Pitts into custody at his home on 400 East. Booking photos for the adults that were arrested are on page 2. Photo courtesy of the Juab County Sheriff’s Office
By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Thirty suspected drug dealers from the East Juab County area have been arrested, booked into jail and most have had a preliminary appearance in Fourth District Court.
The initial sting operation, held early on Wednesday, Feb. 5, netted 24 arrests in under two hours. Of the five other suspects booked, two were arrested in Juab County, two turned themselves in and one was arrested on Monday.
Court dates have, or are, being set for all of those arrested on drug distribution charges. Bail has been set for all those arrested on Wednesday and some are out of jail, having posted the required bail amount.
The charges came after a roundup of alleged drug dealers in the East Juab County area. A similar drug seller roundup was held last fall in Sanpete County where a similar number of arrests were made.
“This represents the fruits of hard labor and six month’s worth of effort on the part of law enforcement and is a cooperative effort between many agencies,” said Alden Orme, Juab County Sheriff.
He said that five teams were set up and each arrested drug dealers. Those dealers came from Nephi, Mona, Levan, Eureka and one from Fountain Green.
Two were arrested in Utah County.
The teams consisted of officers from the Juab and Sanpete County Sheriff’s offices, the Nephi and Mount Pleasant City police, the Utah Highway Patrol, the Joint Criminal Apprehension Team, the Utah Department of Corrections, Adult Probation and Parole, U.S. Marshals and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
“The majority of the distributors were in their 20s and 30s but we did have some who are in their 50s or 60s and there were a couple of juveniles,” said Orme.
Names of the juveniles are protected under law.
All suspects will continue to move forward in the court system having allegedly purchased drugs from undercover agents during the operation or who were allegedly part of a drug deal. By Monday, most had been in court as the various felony charges of drug distribution were read against them.
The sting operation started with a pre-dawn briefing at the county jail. The press had been welcomed in advance and invited to cover the event. A press briefing was held at 2 p.m., also at the county jail, where the various agencies involved were present to answer questions.
“To be able to round up this many people in a community such as ours, with approximately 5,500 people, and to be able to take down this. This is just part one of many parts to come,” said Mike Morgan, Nephi City Police Chief.
“This drug problem has been going on for years but now, working together, we can take crime off our streets,” he said.
For each arrest, Juab County Attorney Jared Eldridge had determined there was probable cause, a constitutionally prescribed standard of proof; a reasonable ground for belief in the existence of certain facts that law enforcement has evidence sufficient to warrant an arrest or search.
“I wouldn’t say any of the people arrested are major drug kingpins,” Eldridge said. “These are lower-level dealers, but they are dealers. They are people who are a problem for our community.”
“They’re suppliers in our area,” said Sheriff Kevin Holman. “We know that Juab County and Sanpete County have a relationship in that distribution of narcotics.”
Orme said that in a small community everyone knows most everyone.
“Some of these people arrested today I went to high school with. Some were friends,” he said.
“If they are going to sell drugs to kids and other people, this is the consequence,” said Orme.
A grant, received in July 2009, made the bi-county task force a possibility. By August, the task force was operational as the Sanpete/Juab Major Crimes and Drug Task Force. Since that time, more than 60 individuals have been rounded up.
Both Juab and Sanpete County Sheriff’s Offices have small departments and, in the past, it was often difficult to impossible for one man in each department to do the needed job.
The two counties now have five officers working full time to battle drugs in their rural counties: two from Sanpete, two from Juab and one from the Department of Corrections. The last person is available to the task force because there is a prison in Sanpete County.
“The problem is just bigger than one person can handle, it takes a team,” said Orme.
One of the problems in Juab and Sanpete Counties is that society is so mobile. It is easy for an individual to drive to the Wasatch Front, purchase drugs and drive back selling them to users along the way and to others in both Juab and Sanpete, said Orme.
“The people we are looking at are drug dealers. They sell—they’re not just users—they are sellers of drugs, and we want to give them the resources to get that out of their lives,” said Holman.
“There’s hardly a family that isn’t touched by substance abuse,” said Orme.
There have been deaths of young people in the community which have been caused by drug overdose. Others know the pain of watching as a family member becomes enslaved.
“A lot of these people we do know. We know their families, and we know some of the challenges they face,” said Eldridge.
Nevertheless, he said, he is prepared to take those charged through the court system. The ultimate hope is that the suspects will make a change for the better.
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