As it enters its third decade in the fight against drugs in the area, the Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force continues to expand.
But for the agency, formed in October 1988, Caldwell County will always be home.
Caldwell County Judge/Executive Brock Thomas swore in members of the task force for another year of service Thursday morning.
The Pennyrile Area Development District (PADD) board of directors formed the task force at that time to combat illegal narcotics activity in the region.
In its earliest stage, the PNTF was a three-person group, a director and two detectives for the Pennyrile’s nine counties.
To form the organization, PADD officials needed a county without its own police force to serve as the task force’s host county, and Caldwell County stepped up, said PNTF Director Cheyenne Albro.
The county sheriff’s department was not considered a police agency under the terms of the task force’s establishment.
The group’s arrest powers originate here; all the other counties in which the task force operates sign interlocal agreements for their services.
And in 20 years, the number of participants has increased significantly.
The task force now serves 20 counties: nine in the Pennyrile, most of the Purchase area, a few in the Green River area and three further east: Monroe County in the Barren River area, and Clinton and Cumberland counties in the Lake Cumberland area.
Its staff, Albro said, has increased from three to 21, including himself, a deputy director, administrative staff and 17 detectives.
The caseload has also increased correspondingly, from about 120 cases a year in the beginning to 1,680 in the 2008 calendar year, he said.
Caldwell County Judge/Executive Brock Thomas began swearing in members of the task force for another year of service this week.
Albro said Thursday that the unit’s members are reinstated annually.
Some of the task force’s agents are independent, working solely for the task force. Others remain affiliated with other police departments or sheriff’s offices.
All perform a wide range of activities, from doing undercover operations to working with confidential informants.
“Sometimes we just obtain information through a search warrant,” said Albro. “It just depends on the particular case.”
The organization was initially formed through an Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. It was the first Byrne-funded task force in the state; there are 14 others now, Albro said.
In 1998, after being in operation for a decade, the task force was chosen to administer a methamphetamine initiative in the counties it served.
The funding, acquired with the assistance of Rep. Ed Whitfield, has totaled more than $6 million to date.
Of that, more than $5 million has been distributed to law enforcement agencies in the task force’s service area.
Meth became the group’s primary focus in 2000, when the epidemic of meth use first hit western Kentucky.
The meth fight continues, Albro said. Agencies experienced a lull in meth cases in the past two years, but have recently began seeing the caseload rising.
“We’re seeing importation, particularly from methamphetamine cartels,” he said.
“We’re also dealing with the ‘mom and pop’ operations, we call them, the small meth cooks.”
One of the task force’s main areas of concentration now is prescription drugs.
Hydrocodone (branded as Lortab, Lorcet and a number of other trademarks) was the number one drug agents dealt with last year.
The problem extends to school-aged children — prescription drugs are their top choice, Albro said.
And there are still the traditional drugs.
“Cocaine’s still alive and well. Marijuana’s still prominent,” he said.
Funding to combat the drug trade in the area is still solid.
Albro said this year’s funding levels were much better than in past years. Stimulus funds, a reinstated Byrne grant and another half-million dollars procured by Whitfield are helping keep the agency going.
Its asset forfeiture fund, comprising the cash and material goods seized in drug cases, has also been successful, he noted.
In the coming years, the task force plans to focus even more attention on the prescription issue and expand its law enforcement capabilities, adding more detectives to cover more ground in the region.
Other counties are also expressing interest in joining, and that may be a possibility down the road, he said.
