Versatile tool added to drug task force arsenal
Versatile tool added to drug task force arsenal
By CHRIS GESSELE
BHG News Service
Though majestic, the 2,000-plus miles of the Missouri River are strewn with travel hazards such as sandbars, rocks and fallen trees. That debris no longer concerns law enforcement in Mercer and McLean counties.
“The sand doesn’t worry us anymore,” shouted Mercer County Sheriff’s Deputy Terry Ternes over a roaring air boat engine Monday on the Missouri River.
Thanks to a $787,000 grant received in Nov. 2009 from the U.S. Justice Department, the Mercer-McLean Narcotics Task Force now has a 3,500-pound, 630-horsepower Air Ranger air boat to be used for the drug enforcement as well as rescue operations along waterways such as Lake Sakakawea and the Missouri River.
