TILLMAN SAYS HIS DEPARTMENT SET RECORD IN DRUG CASES

Sheriff Reports $2.9 Million Worth Of Confiscations, 240 Arrests Last Year

The Mobile County Sheriff's Department confiscated drugs and property worth
about $2.9 million last year, setting a department record, Sheriff Jack
Tillman told a news conference.

"I am extremely happy that we have delivered such a devastating punch to
drug dealers who operate in our area," Tillman said Thursday.

His spokesman, Deputy Chad Tucker, said 240 people were arrested during the
drug raids in 2001.

Tucker said that during the year, more than 45 pounds of cocaine and more
than 441 pounds of marijuana were taken during the raids.

He said deputies also seized 46 marijuana plants, more than five ounces of
methamphetamine, more than 1,100 controlled-substance pills and Ketamine, a
prescription drug used as an anesthetic in human and veterinary medicine.

Tucker said the street value of all the drugs seized during the year,
including the plants and pills, was $1,885,893.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the street value of 441
pounds of marijuana is about $860,000, and the 45 pounds of cocaine would
bring about $350,000 on the street.

Tillman said the confiscation and sale of Wee Care Daycare Learning Center
on Broad Street netted $400,000, and the Sheriff's Department will get a
large portion of that money.

A drug ring operating out of the day care center was bringing tons of
marijuana from Texas to Mobile, federal court records show. Eighteen people
were arrested and convicted in that case.

Four homes in the Mobile area and two in Texas were confiscated and sold,
Tucker said. The homes in Texas were linked to a drug ring operating in the
Mobile area, he said.

Twenty-five cars and 68 guns also were seized in the different raids during
the year, Tucker said.

Typically, vehicles confiscated in drug raids are either sold or used by
law enforcement officers for undercover work. Tucker said a judge will
decide the fate of the guns with one possibility being their destruction.

Tucker said $245,166 in cash was confiscated. The property seized amounted
to $169,700 and the real estate amounted to $590,000.

"I'm extremely happy with our narcotics unit; they are the best I've seen
in the state and maybe the South," Tillman said in presenting narcotics
investigators Lt. Bruce Lee and Lee and Sgt. Mike Reynolds with a plaque
for their "outstanding" work during 2001.