Lincoln County has been designated as a high intensity drug trafficking area. It is one of only 11 counties in Nebraska to have this distinction.
This means that Lincoln County will get Federal funds to help local law enforcement to crack down on the illegal drug traffickers.
"That will put some much needed Federal funding into our task force," said Lt. Lynn Williams with the Nebraska State Patrol Troop D.
One of the reasons Lincoln County is considered a high drug trafficking area is because it is the crossroads of Highway 83 and Interstate 80, which runs from California to New York.
North Platte mayor Marc Kaschke says city and county law enforcement are working together to get this problem solved.
"We've
seen incredible cooperation between the county-state and our local
organizations to really effectively combat some of these criminals in
particular in the drug trade," said Kaschke.
"We target not only the possession but the distribution of marijuana, meth, cocaine, pharmaceutical pills, prescription drugs," said Williams.
In 2010 Lincoln County law enforcement agencies reported 69 violent crimes and 352 drug abuse violations and in a 2 year span had 12 Federal drug cases with an abnormally high number of defendants of 17.
"Your ability to transport and hide those substances really is only limited by a person's imagination," said Williams.
"The challenge is that you have a lot of different bodies shifting through and deal with a lot of different people that your not a familiar with," said Kaschke.
