SALEM, Mo. — The U.S. Attorney's Office may soon seize a 350-acre campground in Shannon County. It's called 'Camp Zoe.' According to investigators, there was rampant drug use and sales of drugs at events there. One investigator we spoke with called it the 'largest open-air drug market in the Ozarks.'
The Drug Enforcement Administration, Missouri Highway Patrol, and U.S. Attorney's Office filed a joint complaint last week.
That complaint came after a four-year undercover investigation at Camp Zoe.
"It was sickening, truely sickening," says a Springfield mother.
She's afraid to give her name, fearing what will happen when she tells what she saw.
"I don't want any ramifications to come from the people at Camp Zoe and Schwagstock. I don't trust them," she says.
Memorial Day weekend, 2008, her 17-year-old daughter skipped school to go to a music festival called Schwagstock. It was held at Camp Zoe, a former kids camp 25 miles south of Salem, Mo.
In 2004, James Tebeau, a member of a band called 'The Schwag', bought the land. He changed it into a venue for festivals and concerts.
"Everywhere there was groups of people smoking pot, people passed out," says the woman.
According to her, the main draw for 1,000's of people at Schwagstock, was drugs.
"It was kind of surreal. It was like, I cannot believe I'm seeing people openly doing drugs, passed out, throwing up, everywhere. I'm in missouri. If this was my house and there was alleged drug use at my house, the cops would be there in a New York minute," she says.
She reported what she saw to the Highway Patrol.
"I said, 'this place is disgusting, and I won't keep my mouth shut.'"
Troopers were already in the middle of a four-year investigation.
According to the civil complaint, investigators attended events at the camp, and saw people using and selling drugs. They say the owner allowed the sales and profited from them.
Tebeau is not facing criminal charges, only the threat of loosing his land.
If you ask the woman we spoke with, that punishment should only be the beginning.
"I was just totally and thoroughly sickened," says the woman.
