An 18-month-long law enforcement crack-down on crack in Dubuque found drug dealers in the area are “bold” enough to sell the illegal drug in public view. Bob Lynn, a spokesman for the Dubuque-area law enforcement task force, says undercover officers successfully bought crack from dealers standing on the street 60 different times in the past year-and-a-half.
“They were bold enough and felt comfortable enough to stand on the city streets and do this drug transactions,” Lynn says. Those dealers are now serving time in jail. According to Lynn, Dubuque-area cops have also learned much of the crack that’s being sold in Dubuque is coming from Chicago.
“Either they’ve relocated to Dubuque from Chicago and they make frequent trips back and forth or their only job would be just to bring the product to Dubuque and drop it off to somebody else and return to Chicago,” Lynn says. Pat Nadermann is a construction worker in downtown Dubuque who says he’s a recovering meth addict.
Nadermann says he sees too much of the drug readily available in Dubuque. “Down in my neighborhood, there’s three dealers right now that I know of,” Nadermann says. “We called the cops and they don’t do nothin’.” But members of Dubuque’s Drug Task Force say they are making inroads in cutting the drug trade in Dubuque.