By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland is defending his department’s record in curbing illegal drugs in the wake of criticism from Democratic challenger Lonny Steele, who last week announced that Copeland’s defeated Republican rival had agreed to be Steele’s chief deputy if he wins in November.

Steele has made the war on drugs the centerpiece of his campaign. Specifically, he alleges that the Sheriff’s Department has been unresponsive when it comes to residents’ tips and complaints about suspected drug use, and that the county lags behind neighboring Jasper County in methamphetamine-lab seizures. He is basing that, he said, on accounts given by people to whom he has spoken and on statistics from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

“I’m getting the same story from them all,” Steele said last week.

But Copeland, who is seeking a second term as sheriff, said that his department so far this year has seized 25 meth labs and made more than 150 drug arrests on charges ranging from possession of drug paraphernalia to distribution and/or manufacturing.

And those numbers do not include the arrests made in April by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in concert with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department, Copeland said. Federal, state and local authorities arrested a total of 15 people in Jasper and Newton counties. The suspects were part of a ring that local authorities said was responsible for half the illegal drugs flowing into Newton County.

“I don’t know what he is basing his stuff on,” Copeland said of Steele’s criticism.

Copeland will face Steele and Libertarian candidate Roxie Fausnaught in the Nov. 4 election.

Steele’s criticisms are shared by former Newton County sheriff’s Deputy Mike Langland, who lost the Republican primary to Copeland in August. Copeland finished with 3,256 votes in that race, compared with 2,602 for Langland. Langland lost to Copeland in a five-person primary in August 2004.

Langland confirmed last week that Steele had asked him if he would be willing to serve as chief deputy if the latter were elected, and Langland said he agreed. He said he remains a Republican.

“I love what I do, and I would like to be able to do it here,” he said of working in law enforcement.

Langland, like Steele, said he has heard accounts from people who say the department has not acted on tips regarding suspected drug activity.

Statistics maintained by the Missouri State Highway Patrol show that the number of meth-lab seizures in Newton County has declined in the past few years — from 28 in 2005 to 23 in 2006, and to 17 in 2007.

But the numbers also declined for Jasper County and across the entire state. Jasper County posted 117 incidents in 2005, then 38 in 2006 and 39 in 2007, according to the state patrol. The state of Missouri as a whole also saw a steep drop in seizures during that period — from 2,252 in 2005 to 1,285 last year.