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The Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team continues to battle the region’s drug epidemic but funding will be needed to carry on that fight.
Houghton City Police Chief John Donnelly gave an update on the reorganizational effort of UPSET West to the city council at their regular meeting Wednesday.
The law enforcement collaboration serves the counties of Baraga, Ontonagon, Houghton, and Keweenaw but also works with agencies in outlying areas such as Ironwood. UPSET needs the continued support of these communities fund its operation.
Since its inception three years ago, Chief Donnelly said the four detectives of UPSET West have made 48 felony arrests–more than the departments of Houghton and Michigan Tech in that same period combined.
Among those arrests, 15 people have been federally indicted. Donnelly said those arrests are the most important because they are not local residents struggling with a drug addiction, but the criminals who are supplying the area with the deadly narcotics.
Donnelly said UPSET has done a very good job in cutting off the heroin supply but unfortunately they have seen an increase in the meth supply. As long as the municipalities continue to support their effort, the detectives will do their best to clean up that problem as well.
