Oak Harbor police conduct drug sweep

"The Oak Harbor Police Special Response Team arrested eight local people on drug-related offenses after serving four search warrants Monday afternoon.Sgt. Tim Sterkel, the department's drug enforcement officer, said the arrests were the culmination of a month-long investigation involving local informants.He said the Special Response Team, which is basically a SWAT team trained for high-risk operations, served two search warrants at addresses in the city and two in the county in about half an hour.The officers arrested four men and four women on suspicion of drug charges that ranged from a misdemeanor possession of marijuana to felony marijuana and methamphetamine possession. They were all booked into the Oak Harbor jail and released pending charges.During the operation, police seized a quarter pound of pot, over eight grams of methamphetamine, $7,400 in cash and two cars.Although the amount of drugs was not extremely large, Oak Harbor Police Captain Rick Wallace said it was a sizeable amount for the Oak Harbor and Island County area. The gist of the investigation was to get drug dealers off the streets, Wallace said. He added that there was evidence that the people were selling drugs. Besides the money, police found packaging equipment and scales at each of the residences.Detective Jerry Baker said that there were also children, from ages 20 months to 10 years, living in each of the homes where the warrants were served."

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