The Athens County Sheriff’s Office is strengthening efforts against drug trafficking in Athens County and neighboring counties to ensure the public’s safety. The Sheriff’s Office arrested a woman who was the target of a long-term drug investigation Sept. 13, which prompted these efforts.
Sheriff Rodney Smith said the arrest involved a pursuit after a traffic stop that lasted several minutes, where the woman endangered not only herself but the deputies and other civilians.
Smith said Athens County has a task force to deal with narcotics, consisting of the Prosecutor’s Office, Athens Police Department, and the Sheriff’s Office.
Smith said their main target is to reduce the amount of drug dealers and users in Athens.
“It’s like playing Whack A Mole,” Smith said. “What we do is we target the people who are trafficking the drugs. We’ll go back to where they are if someone’s in Michigan or Columbus and they’re selling drugs to Athens County. We can go up there and actually arrest them and try to get them out of the equation.”
Smith said it feels like a continuous effort, and the task force is never done.
“It goes back to keeping our community safe,” Smith said. “We can reduce that amount of drugs coming into our jurisdiction. It just makes everything safer for our citizens.”
There are seven detectives on the task force, each focusing on crimes against children to property crimes, Smith said.
Athens County Sheriff’s Department press release Sept. 19 regarding the search of Jacksonville residents’ house, where they found items related to the use of illegal narcotics and weapons.
Smith said even though drug trafficking is an issue, they put just as much emphasis on lower-level drug houses and drug users.
“When I talk about the lower level drug houses, that’s where we see the drug overdoses, and we find stolen property, a lot of people with warrants, and a lot of people disrupting neighborhoods,” Smith said.
Smith said the task force tries to get those who need it to treatment programs when they qualify. He said smaller-level drug houses are more prevalent in Athens than drug dealers.
“This case should serve as a warning to others,” Smith wrote in a press release. “If you persist in dealing narcotics in Athens County, we will catch up with you.”
Smith said drug trafficking and drugs in general are a problem as 85% to 90% of all crime feed leads back to drugs.
“I often tell people that when you take drugs, sometimes it robs you of your happiness because the only thing you want is that next fix,” Smith said, “We strongly urge people, if they have never tried any kind of narcotic or drug, not to ever try it because it is hard to get off them.”
