Drug confiscated vehicles used for education in Monroe County

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – Monroe County schools will have new vehicles in their parking lots.

They aren’t shiny and new, but they have a message for students.

That message, in a nutshell, is what the sheriff of Monroe County has said on this news station time and time again: ‘Don’t do drugs in Monroe County.’

This is the first time the Sheriff’s Office has done something like this, but by partnering with DARE they hope to start kids young in teaching them the dangers and consequences of drug activity.

School is back in at Belle-Shivers school in Aberdeen, and in the next few days, their parking lot will feature something new.

“Most of them went through the court system, and the court awarded them to our county,” said Monroe County Sheriff, Cecil Cantrell, describing the process of acquiring vehicles for the sheriff’s department.

These are vehicles that have been confiscated from drug busts throughout Monroe County, and according to Cantrell he’s got over 30 in his stockpile.

“Usually what we do is we sell those cars and turn that money back around and use it to fight the drug war here in our county,” Cantrell said.

Cantrell decided to save a few of them for educational purposes at local schools, working with the local DARE program.

“DARE is one of the most important classes taught in school because of the substance that is taught, and children can learn about drugs,” the sheriff said.

“Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and all of that, you want them to be aware of it, so that they can learn to stay away from it,” said Monroe Deputy Christopher Dobbins.

Dobbins is a resource officer at Belle-Shivers.

He thinks having this physical representation will be effective when teaching the consequences of doing drugs.

“That person’s vehicle was seized because they were selling drugs, or their camper was seized because they were selling drugs out of their camper.’ When you can see that, then you know OK it’s true. It really does happen,” Dobbins said.

Cantrell said, “This is just one of the things that happens if you sell drugs in our county or possess drugs.”

Cantrell said he’s been to 22 DARE graduations in his time as Sheriff, and Dobbins hopes to graduate two classes this year, using his new tool out in the parking lot.

The resource officer said, “…just to give them some knowledge on it and have them say ‘you know, we learned something about it.'”

These vehicles will be posted outside schools within the next couple of days.