VERSAILLES, Ind. — Sheriff’s departments in Ripley, Dearborn and Switzerland Counties say they have made the largest methamphetamine bust in the last 20 years.
Tuesday, police arrested 29 “smurfs” in the multi-county drug operation. “Smurfs” are people methamphetamine cookers depend on to buy and supply pseudoephedrine, an essential ingredient in the homemade methamphetamine market.
Law enforcement agencies from 10 agencies were briefed at the Versailles Fire Department on their targets before fanning out Tuesday to serve the drug-related warrants. Police confiscated methamphetamine, a quantity of marijuana, and shut down a small lab that was operating in a home with four children. The children were placed in the care of children services.
Earlier this year, investigators stopped pursuing the methamphetamine cookers and started going after the people that supply ingredients. It’s a plan that police believe is working.
No names have been released.