Drug-related arrests increase in Moniteau County

The Moniteau County Sheriff’s Department released their year end statistics on Monday.

Deputies said during 2017, officers answered 7,614 calls for service in the county and made 274 arrests.

Officers said they found that drug enforcement is significantly higher with a huge increase in drug related arrests. According to the sheriff’s office, deputies made 181 drug arrests in 2017.

Deputies said the number of thefts and other crimes are down because of the increased patrols and enforcement tactics.

During 2017, the sheriff’s office also started holding out of county inmates for surrounding jurisdictions. Since then, the office has made $114,000 off of the holds. The money was put back into the county General Revenue Fund along with an estimated $11,200 from court drug tests for a total of approximately $125,000 returned to the county.

Sheriff Tony Wheatley said he wanted to thank the citizens of Moniteau County for their continued support and for the increased involvement for calling in suspicious people and cars which helped officers tremendously.