COMBAT-Funded Drug Task Force Seizes $30.4 Million
In Illegal Substances During Recording-Setting 2019

COMBAT provides all of the funding for the Jackson County Drug Task Force. In 2019 for every dollar of funding COMBAT provided, the Task Force seized $7.50 in illegal substances. 

The street value of all the drugs the Task Force confiscated or purchased in "controlled buys" not only topped $20 million for first time ever during a single year, but actually exceeded $30 million. The $30,451,473 the Task Force's detectives seized during 2019 nearly doubled their previous record set in 2018 ($16,149,483) and was not quite a million dollars more than the total for 2018 and '17 combined ($29,610,967).

"In 2010 we seized just over a million dollars in controlled substances and presented 52 cases for prosecution," Task Force Officer-In-Charge Dan Cummings says. "Those numbers jumped to over $30 million last year and 207 cases presented. When you compare those numbers, going back 10 years, I think they show we are doing our jobs better. The drugs have always been there—always coming in. We are now catching more of the traffickers and dealers—and keeping more of their drugs off the streets."

Methamphetamine continues to be the No. 1 illegal drug problem for Jackson County and the Kansas City area. The Task Force seized 297 pounds of meth last year, with nearly half that amount—144 pounds—being discovered during a single search in October.

COMBAT Director Vince Ortega stresses that the Task Force makes most of its seizures "before the drugs even get out onto the streets, which is when we would see the surge in violence associated with drug trafficking." He declares, "The Jackson County Drug Task Force is very much an anti-violence task force too."

The Task Force seized 126 firearms last year, after confiscating 72 in 2018 and 67 in 2017.

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