Henry County, Illinois holds a distinction that it probably wishes it didn’t hold. To wit, in 2006, Illinois State Patrol officers confiscated 3,300 pounds of illegal drugs in Henry County, 1, 497,297 grams, which makes it the county in Illinois with the most drug busts. There were 46 drug-related arrests in Henry County in 2007, leaving LaSalle County (Illinois) in the dust with only 35 arrests for second place. There is a new K9 officer (pictured), Bobby, a German Shepherd that works with Geneseo Police Officer Jamison Weisser and joins three other K9 dogs that help sniff out drugs stashed in cars traveling Interstate 80.
In 2006, the second closest county to Henry County was Will County, nearer to Chicago, in which 70,856 grams or 156 pounds of illegal substances were seized.
Right now, said Henry County Sheriff Gib Cady—who has been Sheriff for 30 years and with the department since 1970—there are prisoners from about six different countries in the Henry County Jail awaiting further legal action on drug charges.
The reason that Henry County is such a hot spot for drug busts of all description is that the I-80 corridor is the main thoroughfare that reaches from coast-to-coast. Drugs are either coming out of Chicago and heading west, or heading to Chicago from the west.
For instance, last fall, when Illinois State Police pulled over a vehicle in Henry County and searched it, they found over 900 grams of cocaine. Rodolfo G. Jimenez, 1, of Los Angeles, and his son Rodolfo G. Jimenez, age 21, are both still in the Henry County Jail awaiting trial.