Major drug bust at UI

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>I'm shocked--did not know you had it in you;-)</p>

<p>From the COHE</p>

<p>"Drug Sting Nabs 21 Students at U. of Illinois</p>

<p>On a large campus, college students tend to sell drugs unless they fear getting caught. That’s what Lt. Roy Acree thinks, and that’s why he and the police department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign planned a mass arrest for last week, following an eight-month undercover investigation.</p>

<p>By last Friday, officers had arrested 25 people, including 21 University of Illinois students, on drug-related charges from misdemeanor cannabis possession to the felony sale of controlled substances, reported The News-Gazette, a Champaign-based newspaper. The campus police dubbed the case “Operation Thunder Strike.”</p>

<p>“By doing this mass type of arrest in a couple of days,” Lieutenant Acree told The Chronicle, the university can “send a message out to the students that if they’re selling drugs, they need to stop.”</p>

<p>That was the goal of a major drug sting last year at San Diego State University. Campus officials there worked with federal agents to arrest 95 students, although a few months later, only half of them still faced charges.</p>

<p>San Diego State’s sting uncovered a network of drug trafficking, but the dealers at Illinois were operating independently, Lieutenant Acree said. He called drug use a perpetual problem on college campuses, and crackdowns somewhat futile.</p>

<p>“It’s pretty much fighting a losing battle to some extent,” Lieutenant Acree said. Still, he said, “we’re going to continue to diligently investigate any type of drug activity.” The police timed last week’s arrest so that the Office for Student Conflict Resolution could work through any disciplinary charges before the end of the semester. —Sara Lipka</p>

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<p>Yes, we sure did have it in us to think of a name as unbelievably crappy as “Operation Thunder Strike,” as if thunder could actually strike something.</p>

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<p>Perhaps they were trying make it sound like Operation Rolling Thunder of the Lydon B. Johnson days. You know, trying to rally the same sort of support against drugs as they did against communism… sort of.
Or maybe they just wanted to make it sound like they were superheroes or something. I mean, if thunder is loud enough surely it must knock you over by sending shockwaves through the ground beneath you. That’s pretty powerful… right? ;)</p>

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<p>HAHA boneh3ad that was hilarious!!!</p>

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<p>8 moths of tax-funded police labor to nab a couple pot heads…</p>

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<p>and its cops arresting students for deviant behavior when these students are most likely going to make more money (legally) than the cops in a few years. Nobody likes Champaign police.</p>

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<p>is it just me or do other people think its about time?
and to hyder1227 what the hell do you want them to do with the money? find a cure to cancer? they are cops and this is their jobs. This is gonna scare a lot of people out of selling. maybe not all, but enough.</p>

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<p>I doubt anyone thinks “it’s about time.” Most of the campus probably sympathizes with them.</p>

<p>They’re not going to deter anyone… from selling, maybe, but not from using, and it’s easy enough to find it as is. Keeping the U of I campus free from pot is a battle that was lost around 1955.</p>