Two-day sweep lands 37 in Clay County jail

A two day drug sweep in Clay County ends with a total of 37 arrests and 16 other suspects still sought.

Seven more people were taken in to custody today for charges on dealing and possessing several different drugs.

“Everything from basic marijuana possession all the way to the most serious- meth production, cocaine, selling, the manufacture of drugs,” says Clay County Sheriff’s Office Spokeswoman Mary Justino.

There were 30 people arrested yesterday, including one very late in the day, in all different parts of Clay County.  An active meth lab was found at a home on County Road 215, with children inside.

“We’ve been seeing an increase in drug use, drug abuse in these cases that we investigate,” says Department of Children and Families Spokesman John Harrell.

Harrell says the children were decontaminated and are now in the custody of another relative while they figure out what kind of conditions the children lived in.  There was also another child who visited the home recently that Harrell says they are trying to track down and examine.

DCF’s full investigation can’t take place until the home itself is decontaminated.

Most of the suspects arrested Wednesday were individuals rather than a group like what was found in the home with the children.  Justino is not necessarily surprised they only got seven more arrests today.

“We got fewer of them today than yesterday because the word for out and we lost the element of surprise,” she says.

Despite that, she says the sweep was a success.  She says they do a sweep roughly twice a year, when investigations which often take weeks or months produce enough evidence for the arrests.

For the remaining suspects, Justino says they will continue to search and possibly seek the help of the US Marshals Service if the suspects charged with felonies have gone outside of state lines.