Manchin: Resources coming to Randolph

Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announced the designation of Randolph County as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) on Wednesday, a move that will deploy additional federal resources to the county and help support the coordination and development of drug control efforts among federal, state and local law enforcement officials.

Manchin held a press conference at the Jennings Randolph Federal Building to announce the official designation. He was joined by Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and William Ihlenfeld, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia.

“We are going to be able to address the epidemic in a much more forceful and informed way with the resources that comes with being a HIDTA designation,” Manchin said. “This state has the highest cases per capita of any state in overdoses and loss of lives, and what it does to families is something we can’t fix unless we stop this scourge.”

Manchin spoke about China and Mexico’s part in fentanyl-laced drugs coming into the U.S. and how we now live in a world where “one pill can kill.”

“We’re losing more Americans than in any war that we’ve ever fought to drugs that we haven’t declared a war on, and we’re gonna have to,” said Manchin.

The senator also spoke on his efforts to fight the drug epidemic on the federal level, from negotiating for federal funding against drugs and fighting the pharmaceutical companies, to writing a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking the Department of State to hold China and Mexico accountable.

“This is a great opportunity for West Virginia,” Manchin said. “To continue to wage this war that we have going on right now and be able to defeat it. We can’t do it without the investment from the federal level and local level. That’s what the HIDTA designation will do and raise it to another level.”

Gupta also stressed how helpful HIDTA will be for the area.

“HIDTA is the best return of investment in U.S. taxpayer dollars. And it’s working right here,” said Gupta. “Just last year more that 26,000 pounds of fentanyl was seized. It couldn’t have been done without HIDTA.”

Gupta, who formerly served at the helm of the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, also said that HIDTA in Randolph County will begin to work right away.

“It’s a great, great day for folks right here in Randolph County,” said Gupta. “Working together we are going to make these goals a reality and stop the drug trafficking that happens and beat the opioid epidemic, as President Biden has called for to work in a bipartisan way.”

Randolph County Sheriff Robert Elbon Jr. also spoke at the press conference, saying Randolph County had tried to receive the HIDTA designation before he was sheriff, and that since he took office he tried twice before but the efforts were unsuccessful. Elbon said he then asked Ihlenfeld for advice.

“Mr. Ihlenfeld took interest in our work and our effort, and he offered any assistance needed to work on the application, and assisted us greatly. During that process, we shared data and information. During that time, he contacted Sen. Manchin, and his office contacted us and offered to help in any way possible with the grant process,” Elbon said.

Members of the Mountain Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force attended Wednesday’s ceremony, as did Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco, Elkins Police Chief Travis Bennett and Randolph County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Parker.

Officials said the designation will result in the federal Drug Enforcement Agency placing a full-time DEA agent in Randolph County, and in the county having a federal prosecuting attorney in Elkins.

The HIDTA program was created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and provides assistance to federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. There are currently 33 HIDTAs.

Randolph County will be joining the Appalachian HIDTA, which consists of counties in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Now a total of 24 counties in West Virginia have been designated as part of the Appalachian HIDTA, including Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Cabell, Fayette, Hancock, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Marshall, McDowell, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monongalia, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Wayne, Wood and Wyoming.

HIDTAs are directed and guided by Executive Boards at the local level. The boards are composed of an equal number of regional federal and non-federal (state, local, and tribal) law enforcement leaders. There are 24 members of the Appalachian HIDTA Executive Board, five of which are from West Virginia.According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) website, for an area to be considered as a HIDTA it is required that:

— The area must be a significant center of illegal drug production, manufacturing, importation, or distribution.

— State, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies have committed resources to respond to the drug trafficking problem in the area, thereby indicating a determination to respond aggressively to the problem.

— Drug-related activities in the area are having a significant harmful impact in the area and in other areas of the country

A significant increase in allocation of federal resources is necessary to respond adequately to drug related activities in the area.

To learn more, visit dea.gov, hidtaprogram.org, and ahidta.org.

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