U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-1st, has announced that the Office of National
Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has designated Porter County as part of the Lake
County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
“Drug trafficking is at the root of much of the crime in Northwest Indiana’s
communities,” Visclosky said in a statement released on Monday. “The
inclusion of Porter County into the Lake County HIDTA will help local law
enforcement use federal resources to support their efforts to reduce drug
crime and distribution in Northwest Indiana.”
The federal government designated Lake County a HIDTA in 1996 to aid
Northwest Indiana in addressing drug and gang crime. The HIDTA, which is
administrated by the ONDCP, provides federal resources to help reduce drug
trafficking and design specific initiatives to decrease the production,
manufacture, transportation, distribution, and chronic use of drugs and
money laundering.
“This designation is very welcome and has been a long time coming,” said
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich, who chairs the HIDTA Executive Board. “The
drug problem that afflicts our communities, especially among our youth,
knows no borders. Increased coordination of drug-control efforts between
local, state, and federal law enforcement will allow us to better deal with
these problems.”
“Public safety agencies throughout Porter County have received a powerful
new team member in our ongoing battle against those who facilitate and
encourage drug abuse in our communities,” Porter County Sheriff David Lain
said. “We are excited to have a new partner to fight the single largest
threat to our residents’ quality of life. HIDTA will now be able to unleash
its considerable resources and expertise within Porter County’s borders, and
we look forward to making that organization even stronger. Without the
support of so many city and county officials, and especially Representative
Visclosky, this important expansion of HIDTA may not have come to fruition.”
“We’re hopeful that our involvement in a more regional initiative will help
us deal more effectively with the borderless crime associated with drug use
and trafficking,” Porter County Prosecuting Attorney Brian Gensel told the
Chesterton Tribune today.
Gensel noted that Porter County’s HIDTA classification will make it eligible
for “more resources” to fight the drug problem, “both financial and with
personnel from some of the federal agencies.”
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