The latest Narcotics and Vice Quarterly newsletter is now out, and I urge you to read it. It features stories about the Gun Bounty Program, how police are combatting a new kind of money laundering, a profile on our rarely seen Financial Investigations Section, the results of Operation Vice Grip to combat violence at bars and taverns and the latest statistics on drugs, weapons, and prostitution in Kansas City. It also introduces you to our newest drug dogs, Wendy and Julie. They're a friendly pair who work to stop the transport of large quantities of drugs through Kansas City, but we also used them in our latest Violent Crime Initiative to sniff out drugs in homes and businesses where we had warrants to search.
Finally, I pasted one of the articles from the newsletter below about the impressive amount of national recognition the investigators of our Narcotics and Vice Division are receiving lately.
Several members of the Narcotics and Vice Division have been recognized as the best in their field in the nation in a number of categories:
Detective Anthony Garcia of KCPD’s Interdiction Section was named the 2011 Detective of the Year by the International Narcotics Interdiction Association at the group’s annual conference. Since he has been assigned to the Interdiction Section in 2002, Det. Garcia has intercepted the transport of 4,761 pounds of marijuana, 101 pounds of cocaine, 5 gallons of PCP, almost 20 pounds of meth and more than $2 million in cash.
On June 21, the Kansas City-based Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Investigative Support Center was named the top HIDTA in the nation by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, besting 26 other centers nationwide at an awards program in Washington, D.C. Staffed by several KCPD members, Midwest HIDTA was recognized for providing critical intelligence linkages that support federal, state and local law enforcement officers.
Members of the KCPD Gang Squad who participated in Operation Smokin’ Aces won the Homeland Security Investigations 2011 Director’s Award in the Category of Gang Investigations. The Operation began in 2009 when the Gang Squad started an investigation involving several gang members in Kansas City who were involved in a large-scale narcotics trafficking operation. It culminated in big arrests on June 9, 2010, and was one of the largest drug-trafficking rings ever busted in Kansas City. The Gang Squad partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on the initiative and indicted 23 people on drugs and weapons charges. The federal indictment alleged that all 23 defendants participated in a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 50 grams or more of crack cocaine since July 1, 2009.
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