LOS ALAMITOS : City to Remain in Drug Task Force

The City Council has authorized the Police Department to continue participating in a regional anti-drug task force.

In approving the continued participation this week, the council noted that the city’s $53,000 share in seized drug assets nearly offset expenses on the first year of its participation in the program.

“This is better than we anticipated,” Police Chief James Guess said. “We were advised it would be approximately 18 months before we could expect a positive revenue flow.”

Guess said in a report to the council that the city has spent $60,000 in salaries and benefits for one police officer assigned to the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, which was formed in 1986 to fight drug trafficking in Orange County.

Currently, 25 cities and four government agencies, including the FBI and IRS, are involved in the program. Sheriff Brad Gates heads the executive board that directs the task force’s operations, Guess said.

In six years, the task force has seized $121 million in U.S. currency, 46,346 pounds of cocaine, 2,408 pounds of marijuana and 32 pounds of heroin and other controlled substances, Guess said.

The chief said the city has received $12,000 of its $53,000 share. The balance is expected “within the next few weeks as forfeiture distributions are cleared,” he said.

Forfeited drug assets are distributed to participating agencies based on the number of officers each agency puts into the pool. With one police officer, Los Alamitos receives 1.54%.

Guess said the task force plans to create a countywide gang enforcement program to benefit all cities and agencies. It will refine its gang database and integrate it with narcotics intelligence information.

As a new approach, the program will hire private consultants to conduct community information campaigns, Guess said.