WAUSAU-AREA PATROL LEADS STATE

WAUSAU, Wis. - Troopers based at nearby Rib Mountain led all
Wisconsin State Patrol posts in drug arrests and seizures last year.

" The secret is going beyond the traffic stop, " Sgt. Ray Sondelski
said. " There' s a lot of traffic coming through this area, a lot of
drugs and, most importantly, our guys are out there looking for it."

The 45 troopers of the Wausau-area post made 54, 000 traffic stops
last year in their 18-county territory, stretching from Marquette
County to the border with Michigan' s Upper Peninsula.

During those stops, they made 314 drug-related arrests, beating the
runner-up post of Fond du Lac by 10 busts. Madison' s troopers, by
comparison, made 216 drug-related arrests and Milwaukee' s made 161.

Many of the central Wisconsin post' s arrests were similar to those
Trooper Clark Albers made last week on U.S. 10 in Wood County.

" I stopped them for not having a working trunk latch, " Albers said.
" There were three guys in the car, the owner wasn' t in there, they
all had criminal histories and the trip they said they were on didn' t
seem right. And, they had a sticker on the dash that talked about
smoking marijuana."

Albers found two bags of marijuana, two pot pipes and a package of
rolling papers in the car. He arrested all three suspects.

" We' re looking for any and all violations, " Trooper Terry
Armentrout said. " A bad headlight might turn into an arrest of a
drunk driver, a drug dealer or a drug user."

" People who have drugs have to get them to where they use them
somehow, " Armentrout said. " Usually, it' s the highway. We' re not
in Cuba. They' re not flying the stuff in."

Marathon County is at the juncture of the state' s main east-west and
north-south highways.

Sheriff Gary Marten said there' s no telling how much dope travels
down Interstate 39 or Wisconsin 29 every day.

" It' s one of the main ways drugs come in, " Marten said. " The
majority of it is by vehicle and there' s a lot of traffic from the
south and west. With two state feeder roads coming into Wausau, we're
kind of at a crossroads."