Drug & Alcohol Interdiction

ALCOHOL AND DRUG INTERDICTION

The use of illegal drugs and the abuse of prescription drugs is a major problem across America to include Arkansas and Izard County. The Izard County Sheriff's Department is attacking this problem on multiple fronts to include enforcement, education, awareness, and assisting in rehabilitation.

The enforcement aspect of both illegal drugs and illegal use of prescription drugs is centered on the interdiction of the supply chain and dealing with the user. Much of our illegal drug problem is in the form of methamphetamine which is supplied from Mexico through connections in Batesville. The Izard County Sheriff's Department works closely with the 16th Judicial Drug Task Force in determining who is bringing drugs into the county and then follow up with controlled buys from these suppliers and ideally make an arrest and seek convictions in court. The number meth labs in Izard County have significantly decreased during the past years but we continue to seek out information as to where these labs are located, seize them, and arrest the operators.

The illegal use of prescription drugs continues to be problem in that more and more people are obtaining these drugs through government subsidy programs and reselling the drugs for substantial profit. The sheriff's department is addressing this problem in much of the same manner as we address other aspects of  drug interdiction.

Drug education and awareness programs are developed by the sheriff's department and presented to all county schools and other organizations. Our objective in this case is prevention rather than apprehension. These education programs are directed at children beginning at the fourth and fifth grade levels.

We work closely with the courts and families of drug addicts to get drug addicts into various rehabilitation programs within the state. The key to the success of rehabilitation depends upon the desire of the addict to rid them self of a drug life.

Deputy Richard Williams and Deputy Jaden Whitfield are certified narcotic dog handlers. The narcotics dogs are trained to detect the odor of controlled substances. These substances include marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and its derivatives. Upon location of the odor of controlled substance, the dogs will alert to the smell. The dogs are trained to come to a final response of biting and / or scratching at the source of the odor. This is called an "aggressive" final response or active alert. This response may also indicate items recently contaminated with, or associated with, the odor of one or more of the controlled substances.