Cops Seize $700K Of Drugs, Eight Guns In NW Indiana Bust
CROWN POINT, Ind. (CBS) -- Authorities in Lake County, Ind., on Tuesday showed off about three quarters of a million dollars worth of drugs seized in undercover operations in the past week, and six handguns and two rifles that allegedly were purchased by a Gary mother for her gang-member sons.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich invited reporters to a garage at headquarters in Crown Point, where more than 500 pounds of marijuana had been spread out on the floor in plastic-wrapped bales, alongside more than four kilos of cocaine.
Among the guns also on display were an AK- 47, an Uzi, a .357 magnum, and several others that Buncich described as "very heavy firepower."
Cops Seize Drugs, Guns In Lake County, Ind.
The sheriff said the guns were purchased by the mother of three Gary gang members.
He said they're members of The Get Fresh Boys, and added that, "she was furnishing the weapons to her children - 20-years of age, 21-years of age and 18 years of age. She's 39."
One of the handguns is pink. An undercover officer said it was "a ladies' gun, a nine millimeter."
Buncich said the cocaine is valued at $200,000, and was seized from the Hobart home of the girlfriend of a known drug dealer.
The 500-plus pounds of pot came from a pick-up truck police pulled over on Interstate 80-94. The sheriff pegged its value at about a $500,000 dollars.
The sheriff said officers are trained to look for certain types of vehicles and certain types of suspects, but that doesn't mean they were profiled.
"Absolutely not. No, no, our officers undergo extensive, extensive training. There's no profiling here," Buncich said.
The two men in the truck, he said, told officers they were paid $1,000 to move the drugs.
"They could be facing some heavy time and they're going to have to answer to whoever hired them, too," he said.
The sheriff said the drugs and the weapons are just the tip of the iceberg in the ongoing war against drugs sand violent street gangs.
