Salida police officers and Chaffee County sheriff’s deputies, assisted by search dogs from the Colorado Department of Corrections, conducted a sweep of the hallways, rooms and lockers at three Salida public schools Wednesday morning to detect the presence of any illegal drugs.  The operation, in the Salida high school and middle school, began at about 9am and lasted for about two hours.

The search was conducted as a preventative measure, not prompted by any specific information that illegal drugs were present in the schools.  No illegal drugs were discovered.

Salida police sergeant Russ Johnson coordinated the operation.  One other Salida officer and a sheriff’s deputy, members of the Chaffee County Drug Task Force, were assisted by four officers from the Office of Inspector General, Colorado Department of Corrections.  Three search dogs were employed in the operation.

Routine unannounced searches are conducted randomly during the year at Chaffee County public schools in Salida and Buena Vista with the cooperation of school authorities.  Due to weather conditions in the north end of the county Wednesday, schools in Buena Vista were not included in the operation.