Union Parish Narcotics Task Force reflects on successful year

Chris Butler

Union Parish Narcotics Task Force members say their efforts to combat the drug trade have paid off enormously, resulting in the arrests of major drug kingpins and the largest drug busts in Parish history.

Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley said the arrests in Union Parish are designed to go after the middle and upper echelons of the drug trade. The arrests are significant not only in terms of the number of arrestees, but also the caliber of drug dealers arrested.

"Drug dealers have the attitude that they can come to our rural area and don’t believe we’re smart or know what’s going on. We just kind of suckered them in," Buckley said of the Task Force.

Operating undercover, and using names such as Operation Crack Harvest, members of the Task Force made several high profile arrests in undercover operations in which they participated in drug deals. Those arrested include a dealer on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) 10 most wanted list, kingpins from Arkansas and a Union Parish family involved in drug dealing.

According to Buckley, the local drug trade stretches all the way from Dallas, Texas to the Mississippi state line, resulting in Task Force members working in joint operations with other law enforcement organizations, including the FBI.

"You get one street dealer and there’s someone to take his place. You take the wholesaler out, and it’s a lot harder to replace that person and start the business over again," Buckley said.

"But taking a high caliber dealer out dries up a lot of the drug supplies," Buckley added.

Statistics provided by the Task Force for the year 2002 show 78 arrests for possession and distribution of drugs including, but not limited to, crack cocaine, methamphetamine (meth), and marijuana. Drugs removed, by means of either seizure or purchase by the Task Force, numbered 68 grams of cocaine, 650 grams of crack cocaine, 89 grams of marijuana, 57 pounds of marijuana and 21 grams of meth. Approximately $352,630 in assets were seized from drug dealers in the form of vehicles, currency or homes. Twenty five of the 78 dealers arrested were white males, while 37 were black males. The remaining 16 were females, 8 white and 8 black.

The Task Force itself is composed of three full-time Sheriff’s deputies and one part-time Sheriff’s deputy paid directly by the Sheriff’s Office. Other departments, such as those in Lillie, Downsville, Marion and Bernice supply money through their collection, or manpower, as needed. Task Force members must gain credibility on the street by finding sources and convincing them the information they give will be useful and confidential.

Task Force members say gathering sources isn’t always the easiest job in the world.

"A lot of people are reluctant to help. It’s not so much that they don’t want to, it’s just that safety is an issue. They fear that something may happen to them or one of their family members. I think for the most part they really want to though," a Task Force member said.

Audio and video recordings of drug deals in which Task Force officers participate allows for more effective cases to be made in court. Other forms of sophisticated technology are also used.

But Task Force officers say drug dealers, contrary to popular opinion, are very smart and have developed good counterintelligence measures.

"Sometimes you can have all the intelligence on one specific person or group of people, and you need that one other thing to make the investigation complete. Sometimes you may never get that opportunity. Sometimes you do. A lot of times it’s just luck," a Task Force member said.

Complicating matters is the fact that 10 to 20 years sometimes go by before enough evidence is gathered to mount a successful legal case.

But Task Force members say the dealers’ street smarts can sometimes gives them a false sense of security.

"You try things with a couple of people, and they fall through, then six months later something will pop up and bam, it’ll go like clockwork, you know, as easy as it can be," a Task Force member said.

"We’re not going anywhere. We’re not gonna stop. The dealers will be here mostly until they get caught," another Task Force member added.

Despite technology enabling Task Force members to make arrests more easily, Buckley

says the most effective and best teacher is always experience.

"Until you learn the signs of what a drug user is on and how they’re acting, you don’t know. You don’t acquire knowledge like that overnight. Its takes years of experience, working the streets, learning the codes, the words," Buckley said.

Buckley said information once reached his Office indicating hit men were hired to take care of the Task Force members, as well as their families.

"There’s no way to know if it was just someone blurting it out on the street corner or part of an organized operation," a Task Force member said.

"But you can’t let your emotions rule. You just do your job."

Because of their stated commitment, Buckley said he has complete faith in Task Force members to never become too comfortable in their shoes.

"They have a drive in them to protect not only their children, but anyone elses’ children from having to face this scourge," Buckley said.

Task Force members ask the public to contact Crime Stoppers of Union Parish at 368-9679 if they are aware of any illegal narcotics activities taking place