The Galesburg Police Department is continuing to crack down on drug related arrests, specifically through narcotics travel on Amtrak trains. Police Chief David Christensen says often times trained authorities and K-9 units monitor the Seminary Street Depot when trains are present, as time and staffing allows.
Christensen tells WGIL, that the department works with sources around the country to help limit trafficking as well.
“We get information from other places, it could be as far away as the West Coast,” says Christensen. “It’s important that we develop those relationships and we in turn, would relay information to other points of departure, often that’s Amtrak, but it’s other modes of transportation too, its not just Amtrak, it could be a bus or it could just be a motorist on the highway.”
Most recently, a man traveling from Denver, Colorado was arrested for carrying an estimated 200 grams of ecstasy, as well as mushrooms. 32-year-old Stephen Andrew Aranda now faces a Class X felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Christensen says depending on whether or not a case is filed in state or federal court, GPD will get a percentage of the drug sales proceeds through the department’s drug forfeiture fund. Whether it be by train or on the road, Christensen says police are “making a dent” in stopping trafficking on a local level.
