GEORGIA — A group of more than 30 police chiefs and sheriffs, mostly from Georgia, recently traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to see first-hand the challenges facing federal agents and local officials on a daily basis.
“That’s the frontier of drug trafficking and drugs impacting our communities,” said AC-HIDTA Executive Director Dan Salter. The former head of the DEA in Atlanta now leads the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which sponsored and organized the trip.
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“This is not just an inner city. This is an issue impacting our suburbs and rural areas all over the Southeast,” said Salter of the overdoses and drugs, including fentanyl, coming across the southern border into metro Atlanta.
Chiefs of police from Johns Creek, Smyrna and Sandy Springs all made the trip to the southern border at the end of April. “Our partnerships and what we learn there is beneficial to bring back, because at end of the day we’re all working together for the same cause,” said Johns Creek Police Chief Mark Mitchell.
“The line on illicit drug trafficking is drawn along our borders, but the battleground is within each of our cities,” said Sandy Springs Police Department Chief Kenneth DeSimone.
The delegation toured facilities from West Texas to New Mexico, including one border checkpoint, and they met with counterparts from other HIDTAs, the El Paso Police Department, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the DEA and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
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Salter called the trip eye-opening and hopes they not only bring back a new appreciation, but also take home new connections, intelligence, and tactics to fight illegal drugs, guns and human trafficking they saw on the border funneling into Georgia. “You have to look at the Southwest border when you look at the drug overdoses that are happening in our communities,” he said.
The HIDTA is a grant program administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Thirty-three HIDTA programs currently cover all 50 states. They are directed and guided by executive boards of federal and state/local law enforcement leaders.
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