An off-duty officer found himself in the right place at the right time last Friday afternoon as he caught and arrested two students in the middle of a drug deal on campus.
Police reports state that University Police officer Mark Saha was walking through the mall area when he observed two Sam Houston State University students exchanging money and what appeared to be a small plastic bag. At 1:04 p.m., Corey Countz, 19, and Joshua Glover, 20, were arrested for “Delivery of a Controlled Substance” and “Possesion of a Controlled Substance”, respectively, and booked into the Walker County Jail.
According to UPD Captain Kevin Morris, the students were in possession of prescription drug Vicodin at the time of the arrest.
“I don’t think it (prescription drug abuse) is a new trend, just one that has taken hold because it is so easy to get a hold of than other more elicit drugs,” Morris said. “It seems like we’re always a step behind. We just have to find new trends and stop them, whether through education or sometimes arrests.”
Morris also said that this was the first time since he has been with UPD that an openly conducted drug deal has been busted in the mall area on campus.
“Our biggest thing prevention wise is for us to bring in as many different agencies as we can,” Morris said. “We work closely with DPS narcotics and the Huntsville Police Department. When we identify people selling or buying, we try to go to the sources where they are getting it from. Here, were are getting the low end person, but we’re trying to go up the chain to stop the flow to campus.”