This week the Vermont State Police announced a huge drug sweep in southwestern Vermont that resulted in the arrest of 19 people facing a variety of state drug charges. Another 10 people were rounded up and face federal drug charges.
The sweep involved the Vermont Drug Task Force as well as the FBI, DEA, ATF, local and county law enforcement agencies as well as state and federal prosecutors. The arrests were the culmination of enforcement efforts over the past year, targeting those people involved in the distribution of illicit drugs.
While law enforcement officials acknowledge that their recent efforts won’t eliminate drugs such as heroin, they note that these types of sweeps, targeting distribution networks, are critical to fighting the heroin epidemic.
What is striking, looking through the list of those arrested in this week’s sweep, is how young many of the people are and how serious the charges. Here are a few of those arrested, their ages and their charges.
Casey Clifford, 22, sale of heroin and fentanyl; Anthony Courcelle, 21, sale of heroin; Cassie Morse, 26, sale of heroin – second offense; Shari Perras, 24, sale of heroin; Chelsea Hill, 24, sale of heroin – second offense and conspiracy; Spencer Mumford, 23, sale of heroin; Kevin Scully, 25, sale of heroin – second offense; Felicia Ackley, 28, sale of cocaine – second offense; Christopher Nadeau, 26, sale of heroin; Jason Tiraboschki, 27, possession of firearm; and Jennifer Webster, 26, distribution of heroin.
That so many people can be caught up in a sweep after a yearlong investigation is astonishing. Consider how many more are left out there. And how do so many people so young get caught up in it? To be in your 20s and face your second offense for selling heroin is very serious indeed.
Somewhere along the line we’re failing our citizens as they pass from being adolescents to teenagers to young adults. Somewhere we’re letting so many of them fall through the cracks that they are selling drugs and even worse, they’re selling drugs because there are enough users to support so many dealers.
The scale of the epidemic is hard to fathom.
