The COMBAT-funded Jackson County Drug Task Force is now helping pursue drug traffickers and violent criminals who crisscross the Missouri-Kansas border. The Task Force has joined a new Kansas City Metro Strike Force that, according to the U.S. Attorney for Kansas, Stephen McAllister, has been established to apprehend “individuals poisoning our community with drugs and violence” on both sides of the state line.
“Crime does not stop at the state line and neither does the Strike Force,” McAllister declared during a news conference announcing the Strike Force’s formation.
For the Jackson County Drug Task Force working with federal agencies has essentially become standard operating procedure, with Task Force detectives tracing many of the drugs they’ve seized back to Mexican cartels. (In mid-October, the Task Force discovered 144 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside tires in an investigation that resulted in the U.S Attorney’s office filing charges against an individual suspected of being a cartel distributor.)
“The majority of the Task Force's caseload in recent years has been directly related to the Mexican cartels,” COMBAT Director Vince Ortega said. “As a result, the Task Force's COMBAT-funded efforts have been focused on the violent crime that is inherently involved with drug trafficking, and it's only logical that the Task Force be included in this Strike Force initiative.
“COMBAT funding the Task Force has proven to be highly effective at taking drugs and violent criminals off our streets.”
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