Police call meth bust biggest in LaGrange County history

By Ed Ernstes (ernstes@wsbt.com)

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Police arrested 17 people (15 are pictured) on meth charges in LaGrange County on Tuesday, June 2, 2009. (Photos provided)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jun 3, 2009 at 3:16 PM EST

Story Updated: Jun 8, 2009 at 11:44 AM EST

LAGRANGE — After a year-long investigation, police arrested 17 people on meth charges in LaGrange County Tuesday night. Eighty officers from four counties helped in the raid. Police say it's the biggest meth bust in the county's history.

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“It was just a bunch of red and blue lights that you wouldn't normally see out here in the country,” said LaGrange County resident Sherrie Weible. “It was like a sea of police cars.”

And a wave of arrests — 17 total in one night. SWAT teams and police officers from throughout the area hit several locations in LaGrange County. They served warrants and made arrests, all on meth-related charges.

“It is a big problem,” said LaGrange County Sheriff Terry Martin. “We received a lot of tips from the people in the community too, giving us locations and suspicious activity, we followed up on too. So we’re receiving tips, for probably about the last two years, and the investigation just picked up about a year ago.”

“This was a lengthy investigation that the image drug task force put together and everything just combined last night, to where we were able to set up a couple of separate raids with SWAT teams,” added Indiana State Police Detective Jeff Boyd.

Police say in recent times it has been somewhat harder to find labs like these because they are located in out of the way locations, mainly in country areas.

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere because of the odor associated with making it,” Martin said. “They want to get out to where people aren't going to smell it and turn them in, so they go out and find secluded areas where they can make it where there's not many people around.”

“Hopefully this will make a significant dent in the drug trade in LaGrange County and surrounding counties,” Boyd said.

In addition to meth-making materials, police actually found two active labs during the raid. They called in a special team from the Indiana State Police to dismantle them.

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