P0LICE STAGE SUCCESSFUL DRUG INTERDICTION

INDIANAPOLIS -A sign Thursday at the side of southbound I-65 near Downtown
flashed a warning: "Drug interdiction ahead 1 mile. K-9 will be used."

Around the next curve, at the start of the ramp leading down a hill to 21st
Street, sat another flashing sign with a similar message. Near the second
sign, a white van was parked at the side of the road. Inside, two police
officers watched as some drivers and passengers threw stuff out the
windows. Just down the hill, uniformed police officers waved cars over to
the side of the road.

In one of those cars, a white Oldsmobile, the driver sat behind the wheel
staring at nothing in particular. Wendy, a drug-sniffing K-9 officer for
the Indianapolis Police Department, sat down and pushed her nose to the
rear near the trunk.

IPD Lt. David Allender just laughed as detectives popped the trunk and
found a black trash bag stuffed with more than 20 pounds of marijuana
neatly packaged in baggies.

The bust was one of 19 made Thursday by officers during the roadblock, a
rarely-used technique modeled after sobriety checkpoints.

During the four-hour checkpoint, Allender observed:

- --A businessman identified as Dion Henderson, 36, of Frankfort start down
the exit ramp, then slam on the brakes. He threw the car in reverse and
backed up with his tires smoking. A waiting chase car stopped him. He was
arrested after searchers found a quarter-pound of marijuana under the seat.
He was booked into the Marion County Jail on a preliminary charge of
possession of more than 30 grams of marijuana.

- --The driver and passenger of a pick-up truck towing a small tractor on a
trailer stopped on the ramp and began checking the trailer. Allender said
he saw them throw down a bag of drugs. James Hamilton, 34, of Orleans, and
Troy Thacker, 22, of Paoli, were arrested on a preliminary charge of
possession of marijuana and cocaine after a quarter-pound of marijuana was
found behind the truck's seat. Police also said they found cocaine and some
pills.

- --One driver admitted he had no driver's license. As police started to
write him a ticket, they heard whimpering from the trunk. Inside they found
a malnourished pit bull dog. Allender said the driver was jailed for
cruelty to animals. The dog was taken to the city's animal shelter. People
who use drugs come in all shapes and sizes, Allender said.

"We don't stop drivers who fit a profile," he said. "We stopped drivers in
random groups of five and those we saw do something, like throw stuff out
the window when they saw the police cars."

Allender said nearly 25 law enforcement officials from IPD, the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marion County Prosecutor's Office
participated in the drug-interdiction project.

One was IPD Patrolman Tom Stitt, who had found the marijuana in the white
Oldsmobile with K-9 help. After the dog had alerted him to the drugs in the
man's trunk, Stitt reached down and patted the small German Shepherd behind
the ears.

"Good girl, Wendy," he said.

The driver, Reynaldo Garcia, 29, told police he lived in Chicago. But when
he admitted he was in the country illegally, he was arrested and turned
over to immigration authorities for deportation.

IPD Sgt. Marshall DePew questioned Garcia.

"He said he didn't know there was drugs in the trunk, but he said he was
not surprised," DePew said.

The man said he was ordered to drive the Oldsmobile down I-65 from Chicago
to Indianapolis. Once in Indianapolis, he was supposed to get a page that
would tell him where to deliver the car.

Not all of the arrests included drug violations.

About noon, Allender and other detectives watched a man stop his car on the
ramp and get out. He was wearing sweatpants that had a strange square bulge
on the side.

"Oh, hi," he said to approaching police, who asked about the bulge.

Sheepishly, the man pulled out three videotapes which he admitted he had
just snatched from a Northside video rental store.

"We called the store and the manager told us the guy had just stolen three
tapes. We arrested him when the store said they would prosecute," Allender
said.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)