Lower Police Striving to Keep Out Drug Dealers

VILLAS — News stories of arrests and seizure of illegal drugs in Lower Township appear frequently in the Herald but Lower Township Police Chief Edward Donohue said while the drug situation is bad in the township, the good news is police are having an impact.
Donohue said he has made it a mission to make it as intolerable as possible for drug dealers to do business in the township and he said the word is out among those who ply the trade.
“It has actually gotten back to us by confidential informants and other means that certain dealers have said they won’t come into Lower any more…” he said.
“That’s not just talking about doing something, that is having an impact on crime,” continued Donohue.
He said the entire county has a drug problem, not just Lower Township.
From December 2008 to March 2009, Lower Township police arrested 35 persons in narcotics investigations with a total street value of recovered drugs of about $15,000, said Donohue.
One case involved 100 bags of heroin, another 98 bags of heroin, and an additional case: 80 bags and another, one pound of marijuana.
Donohue said he and the detective division are very mindful that drug dealers come into the township with the objective of getting young people hooked on heroin. He said many in the township have someone in their family or know someone in another family that have become hooked on drugs and spent a lot of money on rehab for that person.
Detective Chris Winter said drug dealers are getting supplied from locations in a number of other cities such as Atlantic City, Vineland, Pleasantville and Philadelphia. He said drug dealers buy out of town because illegal drugs cost less elsewhere.
In the township, a single bag of heroin may sell for $20 to $25, a bundle contains 10 to 13 bags with the next highest quantity referred to as a “brick,” which is five bundles, said Winter.
He said some dealers will buy heroin, use a lot of it and sell the rest to make money. Other won’t use the drug but just sell it to make money.
Winter said others that have a habit will leave town, buy a bundle and use four or five bags, sell the other four or five bags and make enough money to return to the supplier the next day and repeat the whole process.
Illegal pill sales tend to be from local sources such as from someone who holds a legal prescription. They may have 80 to 100 Oxycontin pills of which one, 40-milligram pill will be sold on the street for $25 to $35.
Winter said one Vicodin pill can sell for $10 to $15. Illegal pill use spans all age groups, he said.
Donohue said police are seeing more illegal sales of prescription drugs. Winter said they may be coming out of a home medicine cabinet where someone has a prescription for Oxycontin after having a tooth pulled.
Some drugs come from the commercial fishing docks, others from summer visitors.
Donohue said each county has a narcotics task force that works with municipalities to also get gangs and guns off the street. The regional SWAT Team may be used when a search warrant is used on a house suspected of containing drugs.
Winter said the drug trade is known to possess guns.
Donohue said the majority of burglaries in the township were related to persons seeking money to buy drugs.
Winter said the department encourages the public to report houses were suspicious activity seems to be taking place.
Donohue said such investigations may take time, requiring a search warrant from a judge. He said patrol officers can stop vehicles leaving suspected drug houses and keep a high presence in the neighborhood.
In other cases, patrol officers back off and let surveillance take over to build a case, said Winter.
Donohue said police may receive a tip about individual driving a particular make and model of car driving into the township at a certain time and location to deliver a particular drug and detectives will set up surveillance and stop the vehicle. He said often the occupant of the vehicle will sign a consent form to allow a search and officers will find drugs.
Winter said the county sheriffs K-9 division is often used on such vehicle stops.
Donohue said Lower Township’s drug problem has not increased over the past five to 10 years. He said he has placed an emphasis on combating drugs which has increased arrest rates.
“It makes it look like maybe Lower Township has a drug problem but it’s a double-edged sword, I think it has always been there but we are being more aggressive in seeking out these people,” said Donohue.
The department’s DARE program sends officer Darrin Hickok into elementary schools to prevent drug abuse at a young age. Other officers coach youth sports in the township.
Winter said heroin use can begin with a young person snorting it rather than injecting the drug.
Lower Township is still a good place to raise a family, said Donohue, who raised four children here.
Donohue keeps a page in his desk from when he was sworn in as chief in July 2005:
“To anyone in our township that intends to prey on young children or our senior citizens, who deals in distribution of illegal narcotics or breaks into people’s homes or steals people’s property or robs or assaults our residents, rest assured that we as a police department are going to do everything legally possible to get to know you on a personal basis.”
Lower Township Mayor Michael Beck said his experience as police officer shows him the township has some officers “that really know their business when it comes to making drug arrests.”
“In a certain way, we pay a penalty because they are so good in locking up these rascals that we’re in the headlines for doing that where maybe in a lot of other towns they don’t have the people that make those kinds of arrests,” he said.
Beck said drug problems have lessened in Villas since the Sweet Briar Motel closed.