Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries police officers reeled in a dozen arrests in an engagement called “Operation Pork, Peanut, Pine” during an annual boating event on the James River in Surry County Saturday.
While the festival and boating event are unaffiliated, police said in a news release, the river cruise typically results in a “party-like atmosphere” which results in many police calls for charges of assault, general intoxication and drug possession.
Four to five hundred boaters were out on the river and more than half were inspected by Virginia Conservation Police Officers, the release said.
Police made nine arrests for operating under the influence, two marijuana possession arrests, one reckless boat operation arrest, one reckless boat operation charge, and 30 summonses for boating equipment or registration violations, according to the release.
Officers made the arrests in nearly hundred degree heat. Officers also endured the unique challenges of arresting suspects on the water such as transporting drunk suspects back to a boat launch before transferring them to a police, or towing a vessel with intoxicated operators back to a boat launch, the release said.
The challenges add “complications that are not found in typical motor vehicle DUI checkpoints and arrests found along the state’s roadways,” according to the release.
Only one person suffered minor injuries at the event, the release said. The individual was transported to the Surry Rescue Squad for “ingesting water.”
