SAMPSON COUNTY DRUG SWEEP GOT SUPPORT FROM FED-UP RESIDENTS

Winning the so-called war on drugs is a fantasy, but it does feel good
when law enforcement gives the opposition a hard punch in the gut. The
Sampson County Sheriff's Office, working with state and federal
authorities, has announced guilty pleas by eight defendants whom
Sheriff Jimmy Thornton described as key players and a federal
prosecutor called "the heart of meth production" in the county.

Five methamphetamine labs were involved in a conspiracy that sprawled
into neighboring counties.

The charges ranged from conspiracy to possession to (in five cases)
possession of a firearm during the commission of a drug crime. The
luckiest of the eight, all of whom have records of prior offenses,
could face up to 20 years in prison. Most are looking at 15 years to
life. There are drug busts every day, but this was no everyday drug
bust. Beyond the good police work, though, is there a message in it --
either for criminals or for those who are tired of feeling like
immigrants in a nation of hoods? There's a message for each, and both
turn on the same pivot: tips. These defendants, key players though
they were, are replaceable, and the drug business is still driven by
the law of supply and demand. But their successors will know that
there's no safe environment for their kind of business. Anonymous
tips, according to Thornton, helped the officers locate many of the
labs. And not just these five. So far this year, investigators have
shut down two dozen in Sampson County. The long-suffering public, for
its part, will understand that relief from the physical danger from
the lab down the street and the threat from armed criminals, like the
nuisance of the illicit traffic in meth, is just a phone call away.
And people will call.

The drug trade goes on. So does this investigation.

Want to clean up your own neighborhood? You've just been given a good
demonstration of how it's done.