NO TOLERANCE FOR DRUGS

County Directs Warrants Officers To Be Vigilant For Illegal Substances

Mark Reed smelled it from the front porch Tuesday.

Banging on the door of a red house in the 400 block of DeWald Street,
the Allen County police warrants officer was looking for a sex
offender wanted for a parole violation. Several of Reed's fellow
officers surrounded the home, peeked into windows and talked to neighbors.

The last time they came to the home, months before, they arrested the
man asleep on a couch inside. This time, they struck out. Nobody was
there, but …

"Smells like marijuana," Reed said.

It's not an unusual odor to be lingering around the people officers
deal with. But until recently, it was not unusual for warrants
officers to look the other way when they found a small amount of drugs.

Not any longer. Infused with younger personnel and a more aggressive
outlook, the Allen County warrants officer staff is making additional
drug arrests and confiscating more drugs and more guns while serving
roughly 11,000 warrants yearly.

'More to the job'

Allen County warrants officers find and arrest those with outstanding
felony warrants for anything from failure to appear in court to
murder. They serve the bulk of the warrants in Allen County.

"These (warrants) officers today are not afraid to get involved,"
said Lt. Scott Huffine, head of the Allen County Sheriff's Warrants
Division, who's been in the division for 20 years. "They're getting
into things and know there's more to the job.

"In the past, if we'd see someone with a little dope, we would maybe
just flush it down the toilet or smash up their paraphernalia."

Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries changed that, according to officers.
He's pushing all his officers to take as many drugs off the streets
as they can and to make arrests when they find them, no matter what
the officer's division.

"If you find them (drugs) and don't make an arrest, the sheriff will
call you, and you better have a good reason why you didn't," Huffine said.

Through Sept. 3, warrants officers this year have confiscated roughly
32,460 grams of illegal drugs ­ mostly marijuana, but also cocaine,
methamphetamine and heroin.

They've also snagged 16 guns ­ five of which were stolen ­ and two
assault rifles as well as a bulletproof vest, which is illegal to own.

Huffine said the department has just started keeping regular
statistics on the amount of drugs seized in warrants cases.

Digging for more

Officers are finding what might seem like small amounts of drugs, but
such finds can lead to bigger arrests.

"They're diggers," said Cpl. Dean Hoffman, a supervisor in the
warrants division, about the officers he oversees. "They know what to
look for."

When they're in a home, they're constantly scanning for what might be
lying out.

Tuesday night, while her officers questioned a man and woman inside
an apartment, Cpl. Holly Coonrod caught sight of two small plants
atop a big-screen television. She whipped out her flashlight and took
a closer look, finally deciding they were nothing.

Some of the warrants officers, such as Hoffman, believe changing
attitudes about drugs have led to easier confiscations. People treat
the drugs they carry like their cell phones or cigarettes ­ they
always have them at hand.

"People are a lot more free with their drugs," Hoffman said.

So a bit of marijuana left on a coffee table can be enough probable
cause for a search warrant. That could lead to finding more drugs
hidden in a drawer or stashed in a closet.

A suspect with a small amount of drugs in his pockets could become an
informant for the Allen County Drug Task Force, which handles most of
the department's investigations.

Big payoffs

Then there are times officers find the mother lode.

In June, county warrants officers along with U.S. marshals and city
police uncovered a possible marijuana trafficking network in a home
where they tried to serve a warrant on a man wanted for violating his
parole on a drunken-driving conviction.

They spotted someone peeking out of the home who would not answer the
door, giving them the right to go inside, according to a
probable-cause affidavit.

They didn't find their man but instead uncovered 70 pounds of
marijuana, 8 grams of cocaine, 22 grams of methamphetamines, 15 to 20
cell phones, drug ledgers, fingerprint cleaner and cash. The drugs
found in the home were added to the county warrants division's total.

Officers also found 10 handguns, five of them stolen, and an assault rifle.

"The guns we're finding, that's what bothers me," said Huffine,
holding a bulletproof vest. "All this (vest) would do with the
assault rifles is make the hole of the bullet a little smaller."

Officers arrested a 38-year-old man named Eriberto Serrano, aka
Javier Arellanes-Diaz, on charges of dealing cocaine, dealing
methamphetamine, possession of a handgun with an obliterated serial
number and receiving stolen property.

Serrano was released several days after his arrest as Allen County
prosecutors have yet to formally charge him with a crime.

The case is under investigation, and charges are pending, according
to prosecutors.

'It's hit or miss'

Peeking in windows, sneaking around homes and knocking on doors
throughout the county Tuesday, officers were ever watchful of things
that might lead to an arrest similar to Serrano's.

They came up empty-handed regarding drugs. Officers made several
misdemeanor arrests and found many empty homes, save for one
belonging to a woman wanted for felony forgery.

Her home was filled with stains, stench, cockroaches and a large
flat-screen TV.

Child protective services came to remove her six children, ages 2 to 14.

"Sometimes it's hit or miss," Officer Gabe Furnish said about a night
that yielded little fruit.

When trying to serve a misdemeanor warrant at an apartment at Baldwin
Creek Apartments on Hobson Road, Furnish found a large chunk of what
he thought might be contraband outside a door. He whispered to
another officer that it might be methamphetamine.

"It was a stale piece of bread," he said. "Just a stale piece of bread."