Is This Some Kind of Bust? Very Impressive, But Are They Effective?

Last week, law enforcement officials in Schuylkill County announced two notable drug busts.

At the State Police barracks in Summit Station, Schuylkill County DA Mike O’Pake was joined by Pennsylvania State Police to announce the results of Operation Strike Three.

And no, it’s not an election year for O’Pake, as many suggest — proving many people aren’t really paying attention to the local political scene anymore.

Regardless, authorities say this is the biggest drug bust in Schuylkill County history. They mean the biggest in street value for the drugs seized. In total, more than a million dollars in hard street drugs – fentanyl, meth and heroin – were seized.

Big Schuylkill County Drug Bust

They’re calling it a record for Schuylkill County. It was some kind of bust.

So, later in the week, it seems Mahanoy Township police didn’t want to be outdone. They announced their own drug bust and they’re calling it a record for their department, according to The Pennsylvania Chronicle.

Was that some kind of bust, too, or what?

Well …

According to that report, two men were found in a local cemetery. And they had on them some weed, some THC vape carts (the ones they’re warning you about on the news), and some meth.

The haul? About $3,000.

OK, so it’s a record for Mahanoy Township, allegedly, but when you’ve got another drug ring taking down a million-dollar operation and some authorities claiming it to be a record, do you want to start a drug bust record pissing contest?

Check out this video of the perp walk captured by SkookNews.com:

Video from Thursday night as the Mahanoy Township Police Department prepared to take two men to arraignment that they say were found with over $3,000 worth of drugs in the St. Fidelis Cemetery near Mahanoy City pic.twitter.com/ViVMQOf8PQ

— SkookNews.com (@SkookNews) October 11, 2019

Operation Strike Three in Schuylkill County

The multi-county takedown that was Operation Strike Three really is no laughing matter. (Not that the one in Mahanoy Township is, either, although many of the drugs seized in that operation would be totally legal if Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has his way.)

WNEP.com reports the drug haul in Operation Strike Three comes in the form of fentanyl, meth, and heroin. Most of it came in fentanyl. Police suggest the fentanyl, alone, taken in during the bust has a street value of about $700,000.

From the looks of it, the ring was run out of Luzerne County (Hazleton) and involved a lot of street-level dealers in Schuylkill County.

Here’s a list of all the suspects rounded up last week as part of Operation Strike Three: POLICE REPORT

Do Prohibitions Work?

While these drug busts are being called records, these records are destined to be broken.

Law enforcement can keep trying to convince you that they’re going to rid Schuylkill County of drugs but we know that it’s only getting worse, in many respects.

We appreciate law enforcement’s hard work in taking these people off the streets but are the laws against selling these drugs really working?

Tell us what you think … do drug prohibition laws work?

[poll id=8839]

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