The arrest this week of a prominent educator on drug charges shocked neighbors as well as students and professors at Des Moines Area Community College. DMACC president David England was charged with growing and selling marijuana at his 300-thousand-dollar home in a suburb of Des Moines. Johnston police sergeant Craig Porter says it IS a nice, upscale suburb, and a good place to work…but he says no place is immune to crime. He says it’s very nice, but back in the late ’70s or early ’80s they had the biggest amphetamine bust in Iowa’s history in Johnston. The sergeant says in the mid-80s he went out on a domestic-violence calls and wound up busting a man who was apparently not only one of the biggest cocaine dealers in Des Moines, but in the whole state. He says even when you’re a mile and a half from the Des Moines city limits, and crime doesn’t stop there. Acting on a tip, police served a search warrant Wednesday afternoon at the Johnston home where the 50-year-old England lived with his wife, a son and daughter. The Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Unit took part in the investigation, a drug task force that includes Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Des Moines Police, and police forces from West Des Moines, Urbandale, Windsor Heights and Johnston.
