Photo: Karl Brooks
Ventura County – It may be the enormous popularity of the hit TV show Breaking Bad, or it may simply be the end result of continually ineffective interdiction and eradication efforts at the focus of our national war on drugs wherein the street value of methamphetamine remains attractive enough to dealers that they still risk arrest and prosecution.
Whatever his motivation or the root cause of his suspected activity as a drug dealer, 47-year-old Ventura resident Karl Brooks’ January 11th arrest came as a direct result of considerable planning, investigation, and taxpayer expense.
Not only were multiple law enforcement agencies working in concert for the prior two month investigation into Brooks’ activities—including the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department West County Narcotics Team, the Oxnard Police Department, and the Port Hueneme Police Department—but, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Guy Moody, the arrest was ultimately made with the help of The California National Guard’s Counter Drug Task Force.
Brooks, ”who was involved in the sales of illegal narcotics to residents of Ventura County,” had been the subject of scrutiny for some time before he was detained at a traffic stop just as detectives were initiating the service of a search warrant at his residence.
Once inside Brooks’ home, cops found “approximately a half pound of methamphetamine packaged for sale” as well as “a large amount of currency deemed to be the proceeds of illegal narcotic sales.”
With such damning evidence in hand, detectives took Brooks into custody and trundled him off to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on numerous narcotic violations. His bail was set at $70,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking, Ventura County Jail West County Narcotics Team
