Editor's note: The following is the first of two articles submitted by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office in advance of a conference HCSO is hosting in Winnemucca in mid-April. According to Undersheriff Curtiss Kull, about 150 to 180 law enforcement officers from around the U.S. will attend workshops on illegal drug interdiction, investigations and other related topics.
WINNEMUCCA - Throughout the last several decades numerous different tactics have been utilized in the law enforcement world to combat the illegal drug trade in the United States.
Various efforts have been taken over the years to eliminate, by incarceration, the dealers and peddlers in the narcotics world. Numerous law enforcement agencies established drug enforcement teams to both go after street level dealers and then those ahead of them in this illegal "food chain."
Then the focus changed to identifying and arresting the users of narcotics. Law enforcement agencies in the 1980s and 1990s began training their personnel to detect specific signs and symptoms of illicit drug use and then started arresting so many of these individuals that diversion courts were soon established to deal with the increased judicial traffic.
In the mid-1990s as methamphetamine labs started popping up in locations as diverse as motel rooms, barns and the trunks of vehicles, sincere efforts were made to go after the ingredients (pre-cursors) used to manufacture this particular drug.
Numerous educational attempts to deter future drug users were also established, including former first lady Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign; to "Police Role in Government" type courses in high schools, and of course the very popular DARE program.
The pendulum then swung toward the multifaceted goal of the potential treatment of users and teaching of accountability to the same through the establishment of drug courts.
But one of the single most effective methods of putting down drug operations has been the act of criminal interdiction.
This method of enforcement has been responsible for the seizure of literally thousands of pounds of illegal drugs throughout the United States along with millions of dollars of drug assets.
Where other standardized narcotics or general pool investigations can take time and in some cases go "cold," these types of investigations which generally take place alongside a highway with a simple traffic stop, can potentially pay off in huge dividends.
The idea behind criminal interdiction has been widely used by law enforcement since the days of Prohibition in the 1930s. Starting in the 1980s law enforcement began concerted efforts and received specialized training in the area of interdiction with special attention being given to the discovery of illegal drugs, guns, and currency.
Through a well established network of investigators spanning the country, and aided by advanced technology, law enforcement of the 2000s is now able to police the highways equipped with greater information as to who to be looking for in the drug trafficking world.
Simply put, highway patrol troopers, deputy sheriffs and municipal police officers are networking as never before to identify, stop, and seize huge amounts of controlled substances as they move through their respective jurisdictions.
As these law enforcement professionals from various states and communities work together, they end up removing the illegal "product" headed for a high school or community down the highway from them, as their brother agencies do for drugs headed in their direction and to their communities.
In part two this two-part series, the sheriff's office will present the specific criminal interdiction efforts being taken here in Humboldt County, and the results of those efforts.
Releasing Authority:
Sheriff E.R. Kilgore
Release Written By:
Curtiss C. Kull Undersheriff
(775) 623-6419
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