Drug bust in Fond du Lac County has parents on high alert
FOND DU LAC, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A drug bust in Fond du Lac County has parents on alert because the drugs came packaged in something a child could easily pick up.
"They don't look at it as a simple stop," said lt. Nicholas Kahnke, Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Department.
Sunday morning on I-41...
"One of our deputies had saw a traffic violation," said Kahnke.
Knowing I-41's reputation, every stop is handled with care.
"Our deputies recognize that the corridor of I-41 is heavily trafficked with narcotics and they take a special interest in enforcing and arresting drug traffickers. During the course of the traffic stop our deputies had determined the driver was not the registered owner and through previous complaints they found out that the registered owner of the vehicle was incarcerated for some drug related offenses that happened within the city of Fond du Lac," said Kahnke.
Police arrested the driver, 36-year-old Jontae Ratliff, who was out on bail for previous cocaine and THC charges. In the vehicle were chocolate bars and colorful candy-looking pills and their K-9 alerted on them as narcotics.
"nowadays there's a tendency to disguise things so that law enforcement maybe will, if we're conducting a search, look over it or look past it. What's concerning about this is it wasn't so packaged to hide it. It almost seems like it was purposely packaged to attract the attention of children," said Kahnke.
Police say a test indicated the chocolate contained psilocybin mushrooms, and the pills that resembled ecstasy, were actuallty methamphetamines.
A day later, and also along I-41, Wisconsin State Patrol and the fond du lac sheriff's department, with K-9 Rip, made another drug bust, confiscating three grams of fentanyl, and a brick of cocaine with a street value of $100,000.
"We've been taking large quantities off the road and it's a testament to what they do on a day to day basis," said Kahnke.
Jontae Ratliff remains here in the Fond du Lac County Jail.