An SIU made up of the Tullahoma Police Department (TPD), Coffee County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and the Manchester Police Department (MPD) were recognized for their narcotics work and were awarded the Community Changing Award from the Tennessee Narcotics Officer Association. “While our work is not done in our communities, we are encouraged by the results so far and expect several more arrests and federal indictments in these cases to come down,” said Tullahoma Police Chief, Jason Williams. “We are proud to partner with the CCSO and the MPD in this endeavor. We are also proud of all the hard work put in by our men and women who have undertaken this daunting task within our communities.”
The award stems from the work in arresting drug dealers and indictments for fentanyl overdose deaths. In the fall of 2019, shortly after I took over as Chief of the TPD, this agency partnered with the CCSO and the MPD to address several different narcotics issues in our communities. This Special Investigative Unit is comprised of officers from our agencies as well as an assigned TBI Agent. Shortly after getting together with Sheriff Chad Partin of the CCSO and Chief Mark Yother of the MPD, we appointed officers to undertake the mission specifically of working to deal with the drug/narcotic issues that plagued our community. Since our agencies have launched this joint venture, we are proud to say that our SIU team has put in work that has resulted in 38 individuals being indicted in Tennessee’s Eastern District Federal Court System, and we expect more to follow. These investigations have also resulted in approximately $1,074,000 of illegal narcotics being seized and taken out of our communities.
This unit has also investigated and worked on ten overdose deaths and is in the process of prosecuting those responsible for the deaths of the individuals related to the sale of fentanyl-laced narcotics.
