A former Decatur County resident, Gene Scarbrough, known by many as “Tarzan,” has announced he will run for Tift County Sheriff.

Scarbrough, a 34-year-veteran of the Georgia State Patrol, retired in 2000, and has since been employed with Georgia Power as a contract inspector. While with the Patrol, Scarbrough said after attending an Interstate Drug Pipeline Conference sponsored by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration in 1985, he became very proficient in the Georgia State Patrol’s drug interdiction program, making more than 600 felony arrests, seizing more than 850 pounds of cocaine, more than 1,500 pounds of marijuana, numerous seizures of vehicles and weapons, and responsible for the seizure of roughly $4 million in U.S. currency.

As a result of his success in drug enforcement, Scarbrough said he became nationally known and recognized by the DEA and Law Enforcement organizations throughout the United States as one of the leading State Troopers in the nation for drug enforcement, and has trained more than 1,000 law enforcement officers in drug enforcement techniques, including a class of U.S. Park Police in the nation’s capital.