Des Moines, Iowa — State Patrol Troopers who look for illegal drugs on the interstates that crisscross Iowa say our state is no longer just a drive-through area on the way to larger cities.
Captain Nathan Andrews says the amount of drugs they’ve seen indicates the drugs are now being stored here for distribution.
He says they have never seen that before in Des Moines and Iowa in general.
He says the pandemic saw enforcement slowed down and that freed up a lot of movement for criminals, which could be another reason the drugs are being stored in Iowa. Trooper Ryan Zenor works with the Patrol’s drug dogs and says they routinely see hundreds of pounds of drugs in one stop.
He says they track the quantity and dollar value of the drugs they seize on the interstates.
He says the alarming number is the seizure of 11-and-a-half pounds of fentanyl. Zenor says that doesn’t seem like a lot when you look at the other drug amounts, but it’s more dangerous.
He says federal officials did some figuring on the impact after a big fentanyl seizure in Omaha last year.
The two say they continue to see large amounts of drugs coming across the state this year. The Troopers made their presentation during the recent meeting of the state Transportation Commission.
