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James Jarman
The ripple effects of a major drug sting in Fremont County are still being felt, nearly a week after 18 people were arrested.
Suspected drug users, sexual predators and a former Fremont County Sheriff's Deputy are among those arrested. Most were caught with meth, cocaine and marijuana.
Canon City Police Captain Allen Cooper says officers are still writing reports and processing evidence from the March 5th sweep called Operation Byrne Blitz.
The operation included officers from the Fremont County Comined Investigative Response Team and the Fremont County Drug Task Force. "It was very busy, it actually drove dispatch to distraction," said Cooper.
He says one of the suspects they caught with meth is former Sheriff's Deputy Peter Stiles, 50, who now faces drug charges involving meth. The arrests not only included suspected drug users, officers also caught a Grant Stewart, 21, a wanted fugitive sex offender. Stewart was arrested a block away from Canon City Middle School.
Cooper says some offenders with warrants out for their arrests heard about the sting and didn't wait for officers to come to them. "They came down to the police department with a bondsman and turned themselves in... they saved us some time and effort," he said.
The drug sweep covered the entire county, but most arrests happened in the towns of Florence, Penrose and Canon City.
CANON CITY POLICE DRUG SWEEP NEWS RELEASE
Officers of the Fremont County Combined Investigative Response Team (CIRT) and the Fremont County Drug Task Force (DTF), in conjunction with Probation and Parole, made 18 arrests and executed seven search warrants March 5th during Operation Byrne Blitz.
Operation Byrne Blitz is a nationwide project aimed at drawing attention to support Byrne JAG funding. This event was sponsored by the National Alliance of State Drug Enforcement Agencies (NASDEA) with support from the National Narcotics Officers Associations Coalition (NNOAC)
The Fremont County Drug Task Force has received Byrne JAG funding since 2004.
The Byrne Grant Program was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. It is named after Edward R. Byrne, a New York police officer killed in the line of duty while protecting a witness who had agreed to testify against drug dealers.
