Over the last two decades, methamphetamine has flooded the community and become the number one illicit drug in Daviess County. With backyard meth labs giving way to high-quality dope available in massive quantities at a low price, law enforcement agencies from the local to federal level are collaborating to combat the local rise in drug trafficking.
Various agencies met Monday during the Owensboro-Daviess County Drug Threat Summit at the Owensboro Convention Center to discuss the current drug threat and associated violence occurring in the area.
Chief among those discussions was finding a way for Daviess County to receive a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area designation, which would allow federal resources to be allocated to help mitigate the threat.
“That is federal resources, federal dollars, federal training, federal technology that is being used primarily by local task forces,” said Russell Coleman, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky. “That brings resources at a time that governments are hurting. The more a community can indicate support, ultimately the more lives that will be saved in Daviess County. It will be an enormous benefit to saving lives and protecting families.”
Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain said even if they aren’t able to receive the designation — it’s a bureaucratic process that takes time and is competitive due to the widespread trafficking in the nation — the federal agencies have offered their support locally.
“Someone today said there’s no such thing as ‘Your side of the canoe is leaking. We’re all in this boat together.’ We’ve got to work together to keep our community safe and curb the menace that is drug trafficking and drug addiction,” Cain said.
Representatives from every agency at the summit emphasized the importance of collaboration — noting that there have been exponential advancements in all aspects of trafficking, meaning the efforts to combat it must also continuously improve.
“Not only are we seeing greater degrees of poison, we’re seeing greater use of technology to facilitate that,” Coleman said. “Comparing drug trafficking today to 20-30 years ago, the number one distinction, other than the use of technology, is the use of the parcel — the use of the U.S. mail, UPS, FedEx — to bring that poison not only into the United States from abroad, but here in Daviess County.”
Like small-time meth labs, the use of semi-trucks is a thing of the past.
“People need to know that parcel, not-18 wheelers, parcel is the drug distribution mechanism of choice of drug traffickers in the 21st century.”
Ray Schuler, assistant special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations, noted a specific seizure that came to mind. And because the potency is higher now than ever, even a small shipment is dangerous.
“We seized one shipment of two five-gallon buckets, about 50 pounds of methamphetamine,” he said.
How many doses does that equate to?
“Thousands.”
With the rise in drugs also comes a rise in violent crimes. Agencies whose focus falls more on crime investigations were also present at the summit.
“Our primary focus is protecting the public, combating violent crime,” said Shawn Morrow, special agent in charge for ATF. “We have a natural role here. We know that drugs and guns often go together. We want to focus on individuals who use firearms to further the drug trade and who discharge firearms to cause harm in our community.”
Brian Jones, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Kentucky, added that his agency focuses heavily on violent crime, on drug trafficking organizations, and violent gangs.
“One of the common factors with all of those groups is illegal drugs,” he said. “The drug epidemic plays into all three of those areas.”
Local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies will continue to work together moving forward. Mayor Tom Watson said he was surprised by how much collaboration there had already been, and he’s hopeful a HIDTA designation would push that to the next step.
“We have everything that a HIDTA has except the federal funding,” he said. “That’s the thing I’m most interested in is being able to fund them appropriately so they can do their job easier and have more resources.”
Cain added, “Our partnerships on the (local) task forces with the various federal entities, it not only brings additional manpower but it brings resources in terms of technological equipment to combat the problems and other resources.”
Coleman clarified that the effort isn’t simply to arrest those involved with trafficking — it’s to thwart the entire operation.
“The goal is not to arrest our way out of this,” he said. “We’re not going to arrest our way out of this. Law enforcement is a critically important tool. The goal is to dismantle the trafficking organization. The goal is also to tackle much of the ancillary violence associated with drug trafficking.”
