MARSHFIELD, Wis. (WDLB) — Marshfield and Marathon County officers have arrested a high-volume heroin dealer in the area. Marathon County Sheriff Scott Parks says his special investigations unit and Marshfield police arrested 24-year-old Melvin Dunomes during a traffic stop Tuesday night in the Marathon County portion of the city of Marshfield–and in the process confiscated 80 grams of heroin with a street value of 80-thousand dollars. “As far as heroin, in this particular area, it’s one of the bigger ones, but we’ve had other products that have been a lot larger quantities, but the problem with heroin is you only need about a tenth of a gram to start to get high on it, or to accomplish a high, so you don’t need as much of the product. So, a quantity of this would be quite an impact.”
Dunomes was on parole after recently being released from prison for convictions of possessing marijuana and cocaine. Dunomes is in the Marathon County jail awaiting a Thursday court appearance. He is charged with possession of heroin with the intent to deliver, maintaining a drug trafficking place, and parole violation.
Sheriff Parks says the latest arrest concludes a long-term heroin trafficking investigation, and the amount of the drug in this case reflects the problem both Marshfield and Wausau are having with the ongoing heroin epidemic in Wisconsin–and he says it’s not just the heroin trafficking that’s picked up in the area either. “More and more individuals are marketing products in this area. The great thing about central Wisconsin is there’s been a lot of increases as far as the ability to traverse the state, but along with all of the excellent benefits for commerce, tourism, recreation, etc., it also allows your criminal element to easily traverse the state.” Parks adds, “We’re probably more involved with identifying these persons and affecting some pretty solid investigations of drugs, and I realize that individuals will say, ‘Okay, you took this individual. Somebody’s going to take his place.’ and unfortunately, that’s true. We’ve just got to keep ahead of the game as much as we can.”
In the past five years, Marshfield Police Chief Rick Gramza says his department has seized over 360 grams of heroin, and so this week’s arrest equals almost 25-percent of the amount his officers have collected over that time span. “I guess we’re celebrating. I have no issue with saying this is definitely worthy of celebrating the fact that this toxin or this poison is taken out of the hands of those that are suffering with addiction.”
Gramza says Tuesday’s drug arrest resulted in the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. It equates to roughly 16-hundred doses of heroin.
And Gramza says Dunomes was a “significant dealer” in the area–impacting most of central Wisconsin. “He impacted Wisconsin Rapids. He impacted Stevens Point. He impacted Wausau, just to name a few of the larger communities, not to discount any of the smaller communities suffering from addiction or suffering from heroin.” He says Dunomes is not identifying his sources. “Is he going to lead us to other potential sources? Unfortunately, he wasn’t willing to cooperate with sharing information, but he was the target of our investigation, and the fact that he’s now in custody is definitely a win for the community.”
Last year, the Marshfield Police Department seized over two times more heroin than 14 other surrounding agencies combined.
by Mike Warren, WDLB
