Over the last six months, Muscle Shoals has seen over 500 drug-related crimes. Colbert County Sheriff Eric Balentine has an untraditional idea to try to curb the root of the problem: Encouraging dealers to take each other out of the business.
His department put up a banner at the intersection of Highway 72 and 43 advocating that drug dealers report their competition by calling the sheriff’s office. See for yourself:
“We’re going to take advantage of every resource we have,” Sheriff Balentine told WAFF 48. “We feel like this is just another resource to gather information so we can find out who is selling drugs.”
“We do know for a fact that drug dealing is a very competitive business, so my thinking was, thinking outside the box is if you’ve got competition selling dope, give us a call because we’ll get rid of your competition and then we’ll work our way down to you,” he said.
Colbert County has seen 114 drug cases, with sheriff’s being called out for a fentanyl overdose at least once a week and sometimes more, according to the sheriffs department.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.