Joining Forces Against Drugs

As the sale of illicit drugs knows no geographic boundaries, neither should law enforcement’s efforts to halt the increasing flow of those drugs into Orange County.

So it’s encouraging to see some Orange County police agencies finally putting some of their jurisdictional limitations aside and joining forces against the growing drug traffic in Orange County.

A new special unit has representatives from the Sheriff’s Department and 10 city police departments: Anaheim, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Westminster, Placentia and Tustin. Three federal agencies--the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service--will also be working with the unit.

Individually, many agencies lack the officers and operating funds that are needed to effectively fight drug operations, especially those dealing in cocaine, on the scale of those that are turning up in the county. Without that effort, the county is vulnerable to the major dealers looking for safer places to traffic their drugs.

Together, the county’s police agencies have more muscle and money to fight the dealers and launch the kind of widespread operations needed to help keep Orange County from becoming the cocaine capital of Southern California.