LEBANON — The Warren County Drug Task Force will expand its territory and staff and carry a new name on Monday.

        In agreements signed late this week, the Clinton County Sheriff's Office and Wilmington Police Department joined the operation. Each will contribute an officer full-time, task force commander John Burke said Friday.

        The agency will be renamed the Warren-Clinton Drug and Strategic Operations Task Force, and offer a toll-free 24-hour tip line, 1-866-307-0070.“I think they see the benefit of two adjoining counties that have drug trade going back and forth across counties joining forces,” Mr. Burke said Friday.

        The move comes shortly after a multi-county drug task force, that included Clinton, Highland, Pike, Ross and other counties disbanded for a lack of funding and personnel, said Wilmington Police Chief Mike Hatten.He said the illicit drug trade in Clinton County isn't widespread, but authorities have made arrests for marijuana, crack and powder cocaine, as well as heroin.

        Methamphetamine labs have been popping up in neighboring counties, he said.

        “We know all this stuff is here in little bits and spurts, sometimes worse than others,” Chief Hatten said.

        Mr. Burke said the two agencies, as well as the Clinton County Prosecutor's Office, contributed $10,000tothe task force, which now operates under a $350,000 budget.

        The Clinton County officers — as well a third new hire, a Cincinnati Police Department retiree — will increase the staff to six investigators, a sergeant, the commander, a secretary and an agent assigned from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

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