Tehachapi News

Drug enforcement operation sweeps county, Tehachapi

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Tehachapi Police Chief Jeff Kermode said methamphetamine was the No. 1 crime-related problem facing the area. On Wednesday, Sept. 16, the Tehachapi Police Department received a few helping hands in remedying that problem.

Twelve teams of approximately 140 officers from 14 federal and local law enforcement agencies orchestrated a countywide sweep through 33 locations that netted 27 arrests. All but nine locations were in the Tehachapi area, Kermode said.

Dennis Baker, assistant special agent in charge from the FBI called the operation a “significant blow” to methamphetamine rings in Kern County.

Of five federal search warrants filed, Kermode said three were for Golden Hills locations: two in the 21400 and 21500 respective blocks of Golden Hills Boulevard, and one in the 21000 block of Park Road. The two other warrants were for Bakersfield and California City locations, Kermode said.

Parents dropping their children off at Golden Hills Elementary School day care – which starts at 6 a.m. — were alarmed by the large presence of law enforcement vehicles and officers at apartments across the street from the school.

The activity had dissipated by the time school started at 9 a.m., the school’s office staff said.

Of the 27 arrests, four involve federal drugs charges, while the other 23 involve state drug charges. Baker said the investigation was ongoing. He said there were no injuries reported — for officers or arrestees — during the operation.

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, 14 sought-after individuals remained at large, said Kern County Under Sheriff Marty Williamson.

 “They didn’t get away,” Williamson said, “we just haven’t found them yet.”

Kermode said the Tehachapi Police Department contacted FBI officials in Bakersfield just over one year ago to ask for help in extracting the city’s methamphetamine problem.

“We reached a point where it was beyond our resources,” he said.

Kevin Rooney, assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, said the county had become home to a pizza-delivery-style methamphetamine ring, where users would order the drugs from dispatch-like call centers before the substance was delivered to them in exchange for cash.

Whereas people merely transporting the drugs had been the main focus of law enforcement before, Rooney said officials “indicted people that were actually operating the rings” in the Sept. 16 sweep.

Rooney said a single methamphetamine ring registered approximately 500 transactions in a 30-day period, ranging between $40 and $800 for a single drug purchase.