9/20/07
BUSTED!
Taskforce nets huge drug bust
By Eric Goold
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Manning Police Captain Doug Ridgeway, kneeling at center, arrests an unidentified suspect in the parking lot of the Manning Wal-Mart last Wednesday. Three Clarendon County residents were apprehended in the drug bust carried out by three different law enforcement agencies. |
Members of the Manning Police Department teamed with two other law enforcement agencies and executed a large drug bust in the Wal-Mart parking lot at noon last Wednesday.
Three Clarendon County residents, one African American man and two Hispanic men, were apprehended at the scene when they participated in the purchase of ten kilos of cocaine.
“I’m not surprised,” said Manning Police Chief Randy Garrett. “With I-95 sometimes being known as Cocaine Alley, and I-95 going right through the heart of Clarendon County and Manning’s proximity to it, it’s not surprising to see this volume of drug trafficking take place.”
Manning Police officers worked in conjunction with Federal DEA agents out of Charleston as well as with the ACE Detachment of the South Carolina Highway Patrol in a joint operation that featured a great deal of planning and cooperation between the agencies.
“It went off without a hitch,” said Garrett. “There was communication, participation and cooperation between all of the agencies involved, which is the way it’s supposed to be.”
A large sum of cash was seized from the suspects. Garrett said that at least one of the suspects has a prior arrest related to a drug charge.
“It was business as usual for those guys,” said Garrett. “They were expecting to make the large purchase. It looked like they were used to making similar large purchases in the past.”
As soon as the suspects exchanged their cash for what were actually counterfeit drugs, 15 heavily armed officers swarmed the scene and took them into custody. The suspects were not armed and they did not put up a struggle.
Part of the extensive pre-planning for the bust included the need to set up the scene in the farthest corner of the Wal-Mart parking lot, away from the public and innocent bystanders.
“First and foremost, we always consider the safety of the public,” said Garrett. “All three agencies worked and planned this operation so there would be extremely limited exposure to the public.
“That’s one of the things we considered when we set it up in the farthest corner of the parking lot,” he said. “It was out in the open. The more congestion there is on the scene, the better chance they have to hide. A lot of planning went into this and we were ready.”
Even though the suspects were not armed, Garrett said a show of force was necessary in order to execute the bust without any injuries.
“When we pounced on them, they knew we weren’t playing around,” said Garrett. “You never lower your expectation of what could happen. People have been harmed for a lot less.”
Cocaine and marijuana are the most common drugs that flow up I-95 from Florida. Garrett estimated that the large amount of cocaine in this bust was intended for sale in Clarendon County as well as in other surrounding counties.
The names of the suspects have not been released because the investigation is ongoing.
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