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Oct 28, 2008 10:52 pm US/Central
Good Question: What Happens To Seized Guns, Drugs?
(WCCO)
Throughout Minnesota, police officers and sheriff's deputies bust people with illegal drugs and illegal weapons every day. That stuff sits around waiting for a trial to be over. But what happens to it next?
"That's a great question," said Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek. "We mark them for disposal or incineration."
But before that even happens deputies at the county crime lab have to get permission to destroy the evidence.
"We go see a judge, we get a court order marking the items for destruction. We have to have a court in order to destroy evidence," said Stanek.
In Hennepin County, the narcotics unit reported seizing more than $55 million worth of drugs in 2007. But that's not what gets destroyed in 2008. Most of the drugs being destroyed have case dates from 2004.
"It takes a while to work through the criminal justice system," said the sheriff.
Both drugs and guns are placed in 55-gallon steel drums, and then hauled off to a facility where those drums are place in an incinerator.
"We don't disclose the location, we don't disclose the days of week, we don't disclose the times we do it or how much we destroy," said Stanek.
The fear is that someone would attempt to intercept the truck delivering millions of dollars worth of guns or illegal drugs.
"Do the deputies stand around and get a contact high when you're burning off the drugs?" asked WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha.
"That's another good question," laughed Stanek, "This isn't a 'Cheech and Chong' type thing."
According to Stanek, the drugs are burned inside that sealed drum, inside a closed incinerator.
"It's not like a big bonfire somewhere, that's not how we do it," he added.
It's all done according to state and federal environmental regulations. Those rules require that the guns get melted down at a different location than the drugs; they must be handled separately, according to the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office.
As for the seized guns, "We sometimes break them down, sometimes just place them into barrels themselves, the drums, just like the drugs here, and then they are also melted down. We do not sell these guns back into the community," explained Stanek.
"I mean, we're not looking to put guns back to the street, through a lawful dealer or the Internet, it's one of the things we do not do," he said.
According to Stanek, Hennepin County has burned 35,000 pounds of drugs and guns over the past five years. Each police and sheriff's department destroys their own evidence.
The process has an interesting history, as police departments on the East and West Coasts have historically dumped seized guns into the ocean. That's no longer permitted.
The federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives periodically gives it's seized guns to a metal processing plant where they are chopped into pieces and sold for 25 cents a pound, according to
The New York Times.
In Hennepin County, guns and drugs are only destroyed a couple times a year, because it's such a process to securely gather them, load them up and transport them to be destroyed.
"All of this is top secret. You can imagine, hundreds and hundreds of guns like this going back on the street would be devastating to our communities across Hennepin County," said Stanek.
When it happens, it's a good day for the staff.
"As a sheriff, I get great satisfaction out of a day like today where I can see hundreds and hundreds of guns used in violent crimes and murders and robberies and drive-by shootings and other things across this county be destroyed," he added.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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