SWAT team makes arrest in rural Bartholomew County

The Columbus and Bartholomew County SWAT team arrested a wanted man on Friday morning at a home in the northern part of the county.

According to the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, authorities received information that 53-year-old Jerel Barger of Edinburgh was at a home in the 13000 block of East County Road 900N. Barger was wanted on two felony narcotics related warrants out of Johnson County and has a lengthy criminal history, police say.

The SWAT team was used to serve the warrant and he was taken into custody and then transported to Johnson County.

Authorities say that arrest grew from an investigation by the Bartholomew County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, the Bartholomew and Shelby County sheriff’s department, Columbus police and Indiana State Police.

Sheriff Chris Lane released a statement praising the joint agency cooperation and said that if someone commits “crimes outside Bartholomew County and plan to come here to a remote part of our county that does not mean we won’t find you.”