NEW DRUG UNIT WILL COVER WARREN, CLINTON AREAS

LEBANON - The Warren County Drug Task Force will expand its territory and
staff and carry a new name on Monday.

In agreements signed late this week, the Clinton County Sheriff's Office and
Wilmington Police Department joined the operation. Each will contribute an
officer full-time, task force commander John Burke said Friday.

The agency will be renamed the Warren-Clinton Drug and Strategic Operations
Task Force, and offer a toll-free 24-hour tip line, 1-866-307-0070."I think
they see the benefit of two adjoining counties that have drug trade going
back and forth across counties joining forces," Mr. Burke said Friday.

The move comes shortly after a multi-county drug task force, that included
Clinton, Highland, Pike, Ross and other counties disbanded for a lack of
funding and personnel, said Wilmington Police Chief Mike Hatten.He said the
illicit drug trade in Clinton County isn't widespread, but authorities have
made arrests for marijuana, crack and powder cocaine, as well as heroin.

Methamphetamine labs have been popping up in neighboring counties, he said.

"We know all this stuff is here in little bits and spurts, sometimes worse
than others," Chief Hatten said.

Mr. Burke said the two agencies, as well as the Clinton County Prosecutor's
Office, contributed $10,000tothe task force, which now operates under a
$350,000 budget.

The Clinton County officers - as well a third new hire, a Cincinnati Police
Department retiree - will increase the staff to six investigators, a
sergeant, the commander, a secretary and an agent assigned from the Ohio
Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.