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County joins
regional drug
task force
By KADY BOURN-STEVENSON
and LOU HATTER
Arundel Newspapers Staff Writers
The region’s war on drugs is getting some better-organized “soldiers” with the formation of a regional drug task force among the five counties and four towns of Planning District 9.
Unlike a previous task force that worked on a variety of crimes, the new one will focus exclusively on drugs and will work with the State Police, said special agent in charge Tom Clarke of the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation at Second Division headquarters in Culpeper.
“This is something that’s sort of a trend throughout the state,” Clarke said.
An officer from each agency in the district is assigned to the task force and works out of its headquarters rather than his or her home office. The local departments still provide the officer’s salary, an undercover car, and equipment, Clarke said.
Officers will have the authority to make arrests in any of the district’s five counties, according to Rappahannock County Sheriff John Henry Woodward.
“It seems as though drug traffic and drug violence knows no jurisdictional boundaries,” said Warrenton Police Chief Dale Koglin. “Just because you get to the Fauquier-Culpeper line, drug dealers aren’t going to stop.”
“It’s a way for us to work together,” said Clarke, who noted that previously, a department’s resources were limited to what their drug officer could do on his own.
Rappahannock County Commonwealth’s Attorney Peter Luke agreed that drug investigations in small rural counties like Rappahannock are difficult, and that cooperations between the neighboring jurisdictions may provide better results. The county “is still fortunate that we have been able to avoid — so far — the large-scale drug problem experienced by surrounding jurisdictions.”
, See TASK FORCE, p. 11
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