Washington Co., WI – The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has the responsibility of professionally responding to calls for service from the citizens we serve. We also proactively address threats to the way of life that Washington County residents have justifiably come to expect.
The damage caused by drug abuse and addiction is a direct reflection on an overburdened justice system, a strained healthcare system, lost work-force productivity, and worst of all, the negative impact on families.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office operates a multi-jurisdictional drug unit composed of both sheriff’s office personnel and municipal police departments throughout Washington County. Much of their operations are not in the public eye until the subject is formally charged.
Our goal is to target, and hold accountable, the individuals who deal these dangerous drugs in our community. In 2020, 364 charges resulted from drug unit activity against 75 individual suspects. Of these charges, 75% were for felony offenses.
For several years, the primary drug threat in Washington County has been heroin and related opioids resulting in overdoses, deaths, and numerous associated crimes to fuel addiction. Approximately 0.1 gram constitutes one dose of heroin. In 2020, the drug unit seized 311 grams of heroin and 156 grams of fentanyl. Fentanyl is often fraudulently represented as heroin and either mixed in, or sold as, heroin. Due to the higher potency of fentanyl compared to heroin, it is more dangerous to users and continues to result in overdoses in Washington County.
For years, methamphetamine was a pending threat and intelligence sources predicted was going to be developing in Washington County. The drug unit had small seizures of methamphetamine in previous years, but normally it was a singular occurrence, a dealer from another county, or a seizure from a suspect traveling through our county.
The 35 grams seized in 2019 for instance, was almost all contained in ecstasy. The content of ecstasy is supposed to be the drug MDMA, however it is not unusual that it contains other drugs. More often than not, the user has no idea what they are taking.
The year 2020 signaled the threat of methamphetamine is now in our communities. In 2020, the sheriff’s office seized 101 grams of methamphetamine. Working with DCI’s clandestine lab team, last year, two separate methamphetamine labs were processed by the drug unit in Washington County. I want Washington County citizens to know methamphetamine investigations are a priority for your sheriff’s office.
This brings me to the more public aspects of drug enforcement. Several agencies in Washington County utilize canines for drug detection. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office has canine Ryker. Dedication is incredibly important to law enforcement K-9 units. This is not an easy, cushy assignment. Each dog and handler requires massive amounts of initial and on-going training to be effective. Ryker is trained on narcotic detection, article searching and tracking.
All of the below calls all took place within one hour and fifteen minutes early this morning and demonstrate the effectiveness of the canines in Washington County:
At 3:15 a.m., a deputy stopped a driver on I41 at Mequon Road for license issues. The deputy requested Germantown Police K9. The K9 alerted on the vehicle. A search yielded methamphetamine and paraphernalia. The driver was arrested for drug possession, bail jumping and a probation hold.
At 3:45 a.m. Ryker was called to assist an agency in another county with a traffic stop. Ryker alerted on the vehicle and a substantial amount of suspected fentanyl was located.
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At 4:26 a.m. an erratic driver was called in on US 45 at West Washington Street. During the initial roadside investigation, Ryker alerted on the vehicle. A search yielded crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. The driver was taken into custody for OWI and drug related offences.
Your Washington County Sheriff’s office addresses drugs in our community through a multi-pronged approach. This approach includes youth education, proactive patrol operations, targeted drug unit investigations and an effective drug court. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office fully supports all of these approaches.
Sheriff Schulteis