Indio PD discusses drugs in the community after fentanyl pills found in routine traffic stop
Kendall Flynn
INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – The Indio Police Department has conducted two large drug bust operations within the last week, something they say is necessary for keeping the narcotics and other drugs away from their community.
Officer Benjamin Moran, also a K9 handler to drug and patrol dog Hoki, said drug have been a large issue in Indio.
“It’s grabbing people, and they’re just getting stuck on that,” Moran said. “And so, we routinely go out to overdoses. We’ve gone out to overdose deaths. You see it on our streets everywhere.”
Tuesday night during a traffic enforcement stop K-9 “Hoki” alerted Officer Moran to the presence of narcotics in the vehicle. A ziploc bag containing 246 m30 fentanyl pills we’re located. M30 fentanyl pills are counterfeits, meaning they are made to look like 30 mg oxycodone pills.
Moran and Hoki find narcotics like this on a weekly basis, and he said every traffic stop is necessary to prevent the substance from spreading into the community.
“Our officers are consistently finding drugs, narcotics and other dangerous items in vehicles on what we call or people call routine traffic stops,” Moran said. “Officers have to be proactive to stop this as well.”
However, Moran said local officers can only do so much without further legislation to stop the crimes from repeating.
“Officers need to be proactive and hit the streets, but additionally, our jails need to house these people,” Moran said. “Our legislatures need to make it more of a crime because if these people aren’t wanting help we can only do our job and take them to the solution, right?”
Stay with News Channel 3 to hear from officers about the concerns with this operations and what the community needs to know.