Drug bust works to perfection

Kids ride bikes around the sidewalks; adults occasionally leave their cars unlocked when they stroll into a filling station.

By Andy Dygert

The city of Mt. Pleasant, as the name suggests, can be a pretty peaceful place.

Kids ride bikes around the sidewalks; adults occasionally leave their cars unlocked when they stroll into a filling station.

So when residents read about crime in the newspaper or hear of it on the radio it often feels far, far away. Drug busts, homicides, auto theft - that's all stuff for St. Louis and Chicago ? maybe even Des Moines.

However, every so often, it strikes close to home.

Thursday afternoon the Mt. Pleasant Police Department, assisted by the Southeast Iowa Inter-Agency Drug Task Force conducted a drug bust at a parking lot of Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant. Tyrone Williams, 24, of California, and an unidentified suspect were apprehended at the scene, allegedly exchanging cash for crack-cocaine, following weeks of careful planning by law enforcement officials.

At one o'clock Thursday, Mt. Pleasant police officers and around nine task force members met up at the police department to go over the proposed bust. The case began over a month ago when an informant gave information to police concerning the subjects in question and their alleged drug exchanges. The task force took up the case and spent weeks monitoring the situation - investigating how long exchanges took, where they took place and how best to arrange the bust. A considerable amount of time was spent on the case to make sure that it all would be handled safely.

Following the short briefing Thursday, the task force members got into their vehicles and drove to their assigned points around the south parking lot of McKibbin residence hall on the Iowa Wesleyan College campus - the place where the latest suspected drug exchange was to take place. Riding along with Lieutenant Tom McAndrew, the director of the Ottumwa-based task force, he explained the procedure to me. He said that once Williams was seen heading toward the buyer's car the police unit would ?

You can read the entire story in March 30 issue.