Sheriff Greenwell sends message to local drug dealers

They gathered early Wednesday morning, way more than 100 in all, from across the Golden Crescent and beyond, all to drive home a singular point:

“We hope they realize they are no longer welcome here,” said new Lavaca County Sheriff Steven Greenwell, when questioned on that very item by the reporters he invited along for the morning raids at several residences here in Hallettsville, nearly all of which that day were but a stone’s throw away from the local junior high campus.

Not only did they strike at the heart of local drug traffic here in Lavaca County with an impressive amount of force last week, but it was but a taste of what’s to come for those living outside the law,

Or, to put it another way, as Greenwell quite succinctly did later that day, “This is just the start.”

In all, four Hallettsville residents were jailed on multiple felony charges ranging from manufacture and delivery of illegal drugs to possession and multiple firearms charges, especially one of the guns confiscated during the raids came back as stolen out of Harris County

That he hit the local houses with full blown tactical vehicles with full-on bumper-mounted battering rams capable of creating a doorway into a place, pretty much anyplace they pleased, certainly didn’t detract from their mission in the least bit.

According to Greenwell, the tactical vehicles along with fully decked-out tactical units who would appear to be straight off some Middle Eastern battlefield and make use of their fast-moving tactics on all new battlefields, right here in our own backyards.

The specialized units in this case came courtesy of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Austin County Sheriff’s Office and the various members of what they termed a “multijurisdictional” West Side HIDTA Narcotics Task Force, including the LCSO, the Hallettsville, Shiner, Yoakum and Moulton Police Departments and with assistance and guidance from the Lavaca County Attorney’s Office.

As Greenwell pointed out earlier that day as everyone made initial departure from their first rendezvous point, most everything that happens in modern law enforcement occurs because relationships are in place.

And their current criminal round up across South Texas is hardly any exception.

One of the main individuals in charge of the West Side Task Force is someone Greenwell said he’s known well for literally decades now, dating back to their earliest days in the federal branches, when Greenwell was an investigative agent with Homeland Security and his friend, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), was someone he worked quite closely with back then.

The years haven’t dampened that partnership any. Prior to Wednesday’s Hallettsville raids, Greenwell met up with those same Task Force buddies to help them serve a few warrants in areas a bit closer to their home territory around Sealy, Katy and the Houston area.

Several releases have gone up over the last few days only to be taken down a short while later. Greenwell blamed it on the ongoing nature of the undercover investigations they take part to secure these busts.

And the West Side Task Force has recently had some overwhelming successes of late in just such investigations. One such case, dated Feb.11, of a recent raid of Houston stash house, for instance, netted some 625 kilograms of methamphetamine in one fell swoop.

That amount, 625 kg, is about 1,300 pounds. To put that in perspective, that’s heavier than a telephone pole, in nothing but crystal meth. That outweighs most horses. If you wanted a similar weight in beer, you would need more than a dozen extra-large kegs.

That’s a lot of drugs, and it’s just one of many that has landed in the last few weeks, with release always crediting all the members of the task force, whenever they share some of their successes. In fact, Greenwell told us that if the ledgers they found at similar locations held any truth to them, that’s barely a drop in the bucket compared to what’s passed through their doors over the last few years.

At any rate, the task force listed a street value on that 625 kgs of meth at roughly $34 million.

So, why might we care about Houston stash house getting seized. According to Greenwell, the cartels use such Houston stash houses to make their original drop offs of the drugs that they smuggle in across the border.

From those stash houses then, the drugs go out to the various smaller towns around Houston. So, effectively, those drugs were headed here, or if not here specifically, a place just like us. Search of their homes resulted in the seizure of over 24 grams of methamphetamine and powder and crack cocaine, more than 38 grams of prescription medication, along with MDMA pills, 121 grams of marijuana, and five handguns. One of the guns came back to a stolen weapon out of Harris County.

Additional charges beyond the possession and delivery charges already pending included unlawful firearm possession by a felon, tampering with evidence and other charges under consideration by the Lavaca County prosecutor’s office. Additionally, as all locations were within statutory limits of a public school, drug free zone enhancements can also be applied to all charges.

“The law abiding residents of Lavaca County, the LCSO and the Lavaca County Attorney’s Office would like to extend its appreciation to fellow law enforcement within and outside Lavaca County who assisted in this law enforcement operation and for helping to send a message to any remaining drug dealers within Lavaca County: This conduct will not be tolerated any longer,” Sheriff Greenwell said.