Pocono News Section

Schuylkill County drug cash given to police

Schuylkill County drug cash given to police - Friday, October 17, 2008 at 4:34PM EST

Friday, Oct 17, 2008 @ 04:34pm EST

Taking money from drug dealers and using it against them.

That's what Schuylkill County is doing with its drug forfeiture account.

Schuylkill County police chiefs get thousands of dollars for their departments.

It's cash from the county drug forfeiture account.

Tamaqua police chief Dave Mattson says, "My guys, i know are very active and very productive and they'll continue to be active. The message we want to send is if they're going to deal drugs in Tamaqua, we're going to come out there and we're going to get them."

The money comes straight from drug raids where wads of cash are found.

The district attorney's office releases the money once or twice a year.

Schuylkill County District Attorney Jim Goodman says, "It's gratifying because this is drug dealers' money, so we're taking the drug dealers money off of them and we're giving it back to the police departments so they can use that money to fight the war on drugs."

And it wasn't just cash handed out.

Kline Township 's department got keys to a new undercover police car.

Chief John Petrilla says, "Just having an undercover vehicle does help us tremendously and because we can get involved and needless to say they don't even know we're there half the time."

And with this funding boost, police departments hope to tackle drug dealers in Schuylkill County head on.