Fifteen Pounds Of Meth, $30,000 Seized As Police Take Down Elkhart County Drug Ring
ELKHART — Authorities dismantled a major drug distribution ring operating in Elkhart County early Wednesday, which resulted in about two dozens arrests over the past year.
Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill outlined how investigators from more than a dozen agencies slowly began collecting evidence on the ring over the past year, during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. Police used that information to serve 10 search warrants early Wednesday – eight in the city of Elkhart and two elsewhere in Elkhart County.
Hill said more than 100 law enforcement officers were involved in the raids, which were carried out nearly simultaneously at 6 a.m. Wednesday. All of the raids “appeared to go without a hitch,” he said, with nobody resisting arrest or putting up much of a struggle for police.
“This was a well-organized operation with a number of officers involved,” Hill said.
During the raids of homes and businesses, police seized more than $30,000 in cash and 13 pounds of crystal meth, which has a street value of more than $500,000. Hill said authorities are still trying to determine whether the meth was manufactured locally or shipped into the area from elsewhere.
Everyone arrested is facing a variety of drug trafficking and drug possession charges.
Hill referred to the drug trafficking operation as the Jaquez Ring and he called it one of the largest in Elkhart County’s history. Three men, including Luis Jaquez, were singled out as the top tier of leadership in the ring and they may face additional conspiracy charges as the investigation continues.
One of the raids Wednesday took place at 668 N. Wildflower St. in the Timberbrook neighborhood off C.R. 19 near Bristol. Neighbor Allen Barber, who lives on South Hawthorne Street right behind the residence that was raided, got jolted awake around 6 a.m.
“There were three loud bangs that woke my house up,” he said on Wednesday. “It sounded like gunfire in my room. I asked the officers parked in front of my house if it was gunfire and he said was flash bangs.”
He watched police search the house and a vehicle parked in the driveway while a police K-9 team combed the yard around the Wildflower Street house. A large contingent of police parked on both sides of the street during the early stages of the raid, but dwindled over the next several hours.
Barber, who has lived in the neighborhood three years, said he and some neighbors had suspicions that a resident of the house Wildflower Street was involved in some kind of drug activity. Otherwise, he enjoys the area.
“It’s a pretty quiet neighborhood, not a lot of commotion,” he said.
