Yes, drug use continues to be a problem in West Michigan and Kalamazoo. TestSource Lab is your premier drug & alcohol testing clinic to help. www.testsourcelab.com

VAN BUREN COUNTY, MI – Two people were arrested in a drug trafficking sting Thursday, Nov. 30 after police say a woman stuffed a bag of meth into her underwear.

GRAND RAPIDS – U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten today announced that U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney sentenced Tyrone Henderson, 51, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, to 27 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine and for being a felon in possession of firearms. After release from prison, Henderson will spend five years on federal supervised release. The Court also ordered Henderson to forfeit firearms and drug proceeds seized from his residence.

Top Local Drug Threats

Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the primary source for cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin and low-grade marijuana in the Kalamazoo, Michigan area. 

Both fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine are readily available and its abuse continues to increase throughout Western Michigan. 

Crystal methamphetamine, a purer form of meth, is a significant threat in Western Michigan, including Kalamazoo. The presence of Mexican crystal methamphetamine trafficked from the Southwest Border continues to be prevalent. The availability of crystal meth (also known as “ice”) continues to increase.  

The influx of “ice” has had a major impact on the methamphetamine powder drug market in Michigan, which has led to an increase in violence throughout communities in Western Michigan. 

The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, Kalamazoo area law enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Michigan have partnered to reduce drug trafficking and the associated violent crime that the affects the Kalamazoo area. 

‘It’s cheaper; it’s pure’: DEA warns meth is making a scary comeback in the United States

The federal agency says the potentially dangerous drug is now being manufactured at industrial labs in Mexico. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — On Wednesday, officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) called a press conference on the second floor of the non-descript federal building in downtown Grand Rapids.

Their intent was to remind us here in West Michigan that methamphetamine remains a serious problem in the world of illicit drug use.

“You can no longer go to your local drugstore and buy $200 worth of those medications to produce methamphetamine,” Brian McNeil, public information officer for the administration’s Detroit field office, explained Wednesday.

“The methamphetamine that we’re seeing now is coming from drug organizations, drug trafficking organizations, cartels in Mexico.”

McNeil says that cartel members are trying to take advantage of the diminished access to the precursor materials for meth in the United States.

“The vast majority of methamphetamine that hits the U.S. market is being manufactured in industrial labs in Mexico, which are capable of producing multiton quantities of meth on a weekly basis,” McNeil said.