7/31/2009 1:01:00 AM
Officers arrest men for dealing cocaine


By Andrea Thomas





More than 12 months of intense surveillance and covert operations by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department have led to the arrest of two men in Crawfordsville relating to the distribution of cocaine.

The arrests occurred in the evening hours July 22. Macario L. Beltran of Crawfordsville is being held at the Montgomery County Jail on six counts of dealing cocaine, a Class A felony, with each felony punishable by 20-50 years. He is being held on a $150,000 surety bond, which means he would have to pay 10 percent in cash to be released.

The other individual arrested, Mario E. Callejas, also of Crawfordsville, is being held at the same jail on five counts of dealing cocaine, with one surety bond of $50,000 and another at $150,000. They are both subject to immigration detainers, documents forwarded to the criminal detention center to hold an inmate after the date of release for pickup by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch.

The arrests were facilitated by Dep. Ken Maynor, the sheriff’s department’s lead narcotics officer. Maynor, who worked as an undercover officer in Sydney, New South Wales Australia, is well versed in dismantling medium scale drug organizations.

After a 2005 deployment to Iraq, Maynor decided to return to the Crawfordsville community and address the city’s drug problems.

"I was aware of the drug problems in the community in 2004," he said in a prepared statement. "I believe that the community and most administrators are unaware or downplay the drug problems that we have in our community. Unfortunately, this has led to a problem of epidemic proportions."

Maynor states that many surrounding communities put forth much effort in addressing the trade of narcotics; the majority of local city police departments, however, lack resources or the will necessary to assign officers permanently to drug investigations.

"Only street level drug dealers are investigated," he said. "Mid-level narcotic dealers are often overlooked by law enforcement agencies across the country. The local police departments spend a great deal of time arresting the same street level dealers over and over again, (while) federal agencies primarily target upper-level drug organizations."

These enforcement strategies, Maynor added, leave a tremendous void in targeting mid-level drug organizations.

"I believe (that) to have an impact on drug activity in the community and to have any chance of reducing local crime, these mid-level organizations must be targeted."

As such, Maynor has made it his primary goal to identify all members of each illegal organization and define every member’s role.

But the investigations are grueling, Maynor said, and they aren’t cheap.

"Put it this way," said Sheriff Luther Blanton. "When I became sheriff, we had $500 appropriated per year for drug investigation. This year we received a $25,000 appropriation from the county commissioners, and that’s not enough."

Because of the nature and complexity of the investigations, the department in 2008 implemented the Tactical Narcotics Team, led by Dep. Mike Kersey. The team oversees surveillance, interdiction, controlled buy operations, high risk warrant services and extraction efforts. Moreover, the team assumes a more traditional role consistent with SWAT and anti-terrorism operations. The approach is multi-jurisdictional, with officers from the Roachdale Police Department and federal agencies with the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to deputies from the county sheriff’s department.

Maynor also has recruited an unspecified number of his military counterparts to fight drugs in the county.

"The team members that I have selected for this task are very highly trained," Maynor said, "and in most cases are persons that I have served with in combat in our country’s war on terrorism."

Blanton said Maynor has been able to accomplish more arrests relating to drug crime than any other investigator in the history of Crawfordsville and the county.

"As sheriff of Montgomery County, I made a promise to the community that the war on drugs way my No. 1 priority. I still stand by that promise, and as an administrator I continue to finance and support the efforts of this agency’s continued fight against drug dealers in our community," Blanton said. "As a result of the numerous investigations being conducted by our department, further arrests are expected in the near future."




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