Dubois County now has three narcotics officers, and they have been actively pursuing drug dealers in the community. Deputy John Anderson has been acting as a narcotics officer with the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department since 2012. In Spring 2018, he was joined by a Narcotics Detective with the Jasper Police Department and Huntingburg Police Department Narcotics Officer Rusty Drew. Last week these officers began serving arrest warrants for drug dealing charges that they jointly investigated.
In the past, the Dubois County Sheriff’s Department and the Dubois County Prosecutor’s Office collaborated to coordinate roundups with a large number of drug dealing arrests. However, given the overcrowding issues at the Dubois County Security Center, the Prosecutor’s Office has been filing a smaller number of warrants at a time. According to Beth Sermersheim, Dubois County Chief Deputy Prosecutor, even though they no longer are coordinating roundups, the public should not believe that the drug problem in Dubois County has gotten better. According to Sermersheim, “the drug problem in Dubois County has continuously gotten worse since we started with Operation Big Brother back in June of 2014.” However, that doesn’t mean that they’ve stopped pursuing the dealers. Sermersheim stated that “the three narcotics officers are participating in undercover drug buys with confidential informants and undercover police officers on a daily basis.” She said that “they’ve been doing an outstanding job seeking out the major drug dealers in our community.”
The narcotics officers have been assisted by other officers in their respective departments, and they’ve also been assisted by the Indiana State Police. As in prior drug operations, the informants used in the undercover drug buys are primarily developed through street-level arrests made by uniformed patrol officers and the narcotics officers. Last week, officers began picking up individuals facing charges on these warrants. Additional arrests are expected in the coming days.
The following individuals are facing drug dealing charges as part of the latest string of arrests:
Sheldon Pasquino, 43, Jasper, Count 1: Dealing in a Narcotic Drug, a Level 2 felony, and Count 2: Dealing in a Schedule III Controlled Substance, a Level 6 felony.
Adam R. Schnarr, 39, Huntingburg, Count 1: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 4 felony.
Darrin E. Bouillon, 39, Jasper, Count 1: Dealing in a Narcotic Drug (Heroin), a Level 4 felony. Mr. Bouillon also has an additional dealing case for which he was arrested, Count 1: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 4 felony, and Count 2: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 5 felony.
Charles D. Morrison, 54, Jasper, Count 1: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 3 felony. Mr. Morrison also has an additional drug dealing related case for which he was arrested, Count 1: Theft, a Class A misdemeanor.
Anthony T. Beckham, 44, Huntingburg, Count 1: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 4 felony.
Juan C. Avalos, 34, Huntingburg, Count 1: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 3 felony, and Count 2: Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Level 4 felony.
The fact that a person has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
