SEDALIA, Mo. – Neighbors on West 4th Street in Sedalia say they are breathing a sigh of relief after police raided and shut down a suspected drug house.
Police said it has received a number of complaints of drug sales and other suspicious activity at the house all day and night.
In fact, neighbors are being credited for tipping off police so they could make the bust in the first place.
“When cars come up and stop, they leave it running, run in the house 5-minutes and do it over and over again, you know what’s going on,” said Jason Burton who lives in the neighborhood.
Police used surveillance and monitored the home for over a month.
According to the news release, a search of the home revealed methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia items and additional evidence indicating the drugs were being distributed from the home.
Two men were arrested, 31-year-old Holden Browning and 30-year-old Jacob Astor are charged with distribution, delivery of a controlled substance possession and endangering the welfare of a child.
“When you have neighborhoods that are established, people know who lives there and who doesn’t, so they pretty quickly realize when folks are out of place and don’t live at the house,” said Commander David Woolery with SPD. “You cannot beat a good partnership with your community. This partnership leads to better policing.”
While this bust began with a Facebook tip to police, it’s part of a bigger initiative to clean up the streets of Sedalia.
The police department creating a crime intervention unit to go after drug houses and other serious crimes.
“Since the crew has been going, it seems like we are doing search warrants almost every week. We are getting good communication with our community, identifying problems and building cases,” Woolery said.
Commander Woolery estimates more than 30 arrests since the unit was formed earlier this year.
More importantly neighbors happy drug dealers and users are out of their neighborhood.
“Get it out of the neighborhood, kids running around, I think there’s nothing good that comes from drugs basically,” Burton said.
“I didn’t know about it, but that’s a good thing they cleaned up the neighborhood,” said Derek Williams. “I definitely feel safer now.”
