OFFICER PUTS SEMINAR INTO ACTION WITH I-20 DRUG BUST

A Pell City police officer proved to be a quick study when he made a drug
bust on Interstate 20 Friday, his first day back at work after attending a
seminar called Aggressive Criminal Interdiction.

Officer Vince Warrington stopped an eastbound U-Haul truck about 2:50 p.m.
for following too close to another vehicle. The officer noticed that the
driver appeared nervous and asked to search the truck, authorities said.

Riverside police Officer Richard Woods and his dog, Xeno, assisted
Warrington in the search and the canine indicated something amiss in the
truck's cargo area.

Warrington noticed a piece of plastic coming from the back of an older
model television set. A closer look turned up five bundles of marijuana 65
pounds hidden in the television.

The driver and the passenger, who were en route from Texas to North
Carolina, were taken into custody and will be charged with drug trafficking.

"I feel really good about getting these drugs off the streets. This is a
good hit," Warrington said Sunday. "I'm very proud. If I could do this
everyday, all day long, I'd do it."

Pell City Police Chief Mike Hale praised his officer, who had just attended
a school taught by officers from the Villa Rica, Ga., Police Department,
one of the nation's leading departments in making highway drug interdiction
arrests.

"Officer Warrington has a real passion for pursuing drugs," he said. "Drugs
are a scourge to our society and public safety and we're committed to
stopping the flow."