LEWISTOWN - When the Mifflin County District Attorney's Drug Taskforce sold two properties earlier this spring for close to $100,000, it knew it was onto something.
The homes were seized as part of an investigation into drug trafficking in Mifflin County and sold at a public auction. Both Mifflin County District Attorney Steve Snook and Mifflin County Regional Police Cpl. Rob Haines said they were "surprised" at the amount of interest at the sale, as well as the profits the organization turned.
Profits then were funneled back into the drug task force, leading to several recent arrests and, in this October, another auction.
"It (the seizures) perpetuates the drug task force ... it allows us to continue our drug work without being a drain on the public coffers," Snook said. "We've become much more active in the drug arena ... and as part of it, we're taking a very aggressive approach to forfeitures and seizures."
Forfeitures are now a key ingredient to the game because they deny the ill-gotten goods of illegal narcotics possession to those believed to be involved in the drug trade, Haines said.
The seizures have become such a priority that on a recent raid, Haines said he drove a truck to the site in question - not to haul off criminals, but rather the criminal's possessions.
One of the recent raids involved a man named Lee Foster, who Snook said was "the brains" behind a marijuana selling operation in Mifflin County.
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