Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Police Department is preparing to join a new interagency narcotics enforcement team that will target higher-level drug traffickers than local departments are able to do.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn presented a proposed intergovernmental agreement to the city Public Safety Committee during its regular meeting on March 28. The committee, including councilors Ryan Underwood, chairman; Greg Mahler, mayor; and James Goble, reviewed the contract and sent it to Administration, Finance and Property Committee for further review before it heads to the City Council for approval.
Albany Police Department has led an application for a federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area designation for Linn County, said Police Chief Jeff Lynn. With the designation, Linn County law enforcement is eligible for additional resources, equipment, access to equipment and money to help combat drug traffickers.
Linn County is the last county along the Interstate 5 corridor to receive the designation, Lynn said.
As part of the designation, the law enforcement teams will form a narcotics enforcement task force called Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement (LINE). Members will be SHPD, Lebanon Police Department, APD, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, the Linn County District Attorney’s Office, Oregon State Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
“They’d like to be up and running by May,” Lynn said.
The team’s mission “is to reduce illegal drug trafficking in the Linn County area by identifying, disrupting or dismantling drug trafficking and money laundering organizations through cooperative efforts, enforcement and intelligence shared by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies,” according to the agreement.
APD Lt. Jerry Drum will serve as the LINE team commander.
“I know Jerry personally,” Lynn said. “He is best-suited to lead a new team going forward. I’ve worked with him in the past. I have nothing but utmost respect for him.”
Seizures and forfeitures will remain with team and be used as part of its operations, Lynn said. Upon dissolution of the team, they will be divided among the members.
Sweet Home doesn’t have enough personnel to assign a representative full-time to the team, Lynn said. At this point, Sweet Home’s representative will participate half time. His department has fewer personnel than it did 10 years ago when it assigned a detective full time to the defunct Valley Interagency Narcotics Team (VALIANT).
VALIANT shut down in 2004 after 13 years when an 18-month investigation showed that it had mishandled evidence in more than 1,300 cases.
“It’s needed,” Lynn said. “I think it’s something that’s been missing for some time.”
His department does a good job with local, neighborhood drug enforcement, he said, but this team will be able to handle higher-level traffickers.
“The two primary illicit drugs we see, that’s still meth that’s most prominent,” Lynn said. “But heroin has had a strong resurgence.”
Police also see a lot of illegal use of prescription medications, he said.
Most of the drugs are brought to the area by trafficking organizations, Lynn said, much of it tied back at some point to Mexican cartels. His department’s focus hasn’t been on that area. In the past, enforcement against trafficking fell to VALIANT, which also spent much of its time battling local meth labs, a presence that has diminished since those days.
“I think we’ve been missing that piece since VALIANT went away,” Lynn said.
“One of the biggest concerns heard in the community is drug use. This isn’t an ‘answer all,’ but it’s something that’s been missing in the bigger picture.”