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Show Drug Crackdown Involved Months Of Preparation for Effectiveness Over forty arrests were made in the slate last week during a crackdown on nar-colics nar-colics do.s'n;n-d to culminate during (he last few days of oli, w.i 1.':,.,. ,.r m,o,, ... ,1. Were male in the Moab area, with the cooperation of all law nfercen)(-nt aj'.encies inclining in-clining the Highway Palrol, IV ce Department, Slieriff's Office, State Narcotics offi-cials, offi-cials, and some National Park Service personnel. Preparations for the crackdown crack-down lx',",an three months a'to at Uk." riKiiost of a Moab m;i,n, ail becaiiK' part of a four-slate concentration of effort which was correlated by th Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Fourteen Utah counties coun-ties were included. Dean Lincoln, owner of Custom Ammo, made the pri-mary pri-mary request for an investigation investi-gation in the Moab area, and this request resulted in a visit by Harry Sumcga of the drugs division of the FBI. At the time of the request, Mr. Sumegn indicated to local authorities that he did not believe be-lieve the problem in Moab was severe enouri to be involving in-volving top state officials. After a week's primary investigation, in-vestigation, however, it was decided that not only was the Moab problem severe, but critical enough to warrcnt sending a full thno agent 'o the area. A rooernt.ivo effort ef-fort of the FBI and the Liquor Oou'rol authorities resulted re-sulted in placing an agent I I....:..., i....t ( ....a 111 1 e iiiiinr me wim. wu diij one half months. Crackdown procedures called call-ed for cert a in dales and even certain hours for the .arrests to be made. This was done so that most (f the ai-rcsts aeeross the slate would be accomplished in the first hour of the schedule, eliminating most of the possibilities for a t t ff . Four of the five Moab persons were picked up early the first day, and the last a day later. Dean Lincoln did a real good job for Moab in this caper," according to Police Chief Mel Dalton, who explained ex-plained that Mr. Lincoln's place of business was used as a meeting place for the law-enforcement officials during dur-ing the investigation. Ho also suffered accusations that he was an addict and a pusher, push-er, and his business suffered as a result of the community feeling toward him during ties time. He and his wife were threnlomd several times, and at one time he was requested by the authorities author-ities to leave town. He re-fus-d to have, but dd send h s wife out of town to insure in-sure her safety. "Moab owes Dean a debt of gratitude", remarked Chief Dalton. "Ho has been slandered sland-ered and pushed around, and accused even by law enforcement enforce-ment officials as being an addict." Til's was all part ,.r ii. -.1.... v... ,..,..!..;. .1 ui uie jiiiin, ne eAitinieu "He has helped to make Moab Mo-ab a butler place to live", he added, and went on lo indicate in-dicate that he hopes this incident in-cident will encourage others to slep forward and help, "Sacrifices like this can only do the community good," he s:fd, ' but one man cannot do it alone." |