Eight Arrested in Ford Glass Plant Drug Bust

Eight men were handcuffed and escorted out of Tulsa's Ford Glass plant August 12th and 13th. The arrests were the results of a nine-month undercover police investigation. Police say the men sold

Thursday, August 19th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Eight men were handcuffed and escorted out of Tulsa's Ford Glass plant August 12th and 13th. The arrests were the results of a nine-month undercover police investigation. Police say the men sold methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription pills to undercover officers at the plant. Ford spokesperson Cheryl Eberwein says Ford initiated the investigation based on internal reports.

Police say this was the first drug bust at the Ford facility. Eberwein says she doesn't believe the plant has a huge drug problem and that the vast majority of employees observe Ford policies. However, she emphasized that Ford will not tolerate that type of behavior in the workplace. Sergeant Wayne Allen says after police brought up enough evidence against the suspected employees, the company acted swiftly. "They were brought in one morning to an office at the plant, terminated, taken across the hall where the police were waiting across the hall for them with warrants in hand," said Allen.

Police don't consider this a big bust because the plant has about 800 employees.
But Ford says the episode is extremely big to them, because some of the fired employees had been working there for almost 20 years. All the men were charged with at least one felony count of unlawful delivery of controlled drugs. Police say the investigation is complete.