Schumer Announces, After His Push, New Crime Fighting Resources Coming To Ulster County With Designation Of County As "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" -- Designation Will Now Mean Additional Resources To Fight Heroin Scourge

Press Release

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today announced that the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has designated Ulster County a federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). This designation will now help Ulster County address a recent and disturbing uptick in heroin usage and drug-related crime by improving coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as providing equipment, technology and additional resources that the County needs to tackle this challenge. In August 2014, Schumer pushed ONDCP to provide Ulster County with this HIDTA designation, noting that heroin seizures in Ulster County tripled between 2007 and 2014 and drug-related arrests have increased from 2013 to 2014. Schumer said that he is pleased to hear ONDCP has agreed, after his urging, to designate Ulster County as a HIDTA in order to curb this emerging threat.

"For too long, heroin use, fatal overdoses, and drug-related crimes have been on the rise, plaguing Upstate New York communities like those in Ulster County. Ulster deserves every federal resource possible to combat the growing scourge of drug trafficking, and that is why I went to bat for the county and called on the feds to designate Ulster County a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,'" said Schumer. "I'm pleased that the ONDCP has finally issued this designation, which will provide technical expertise, more law enforcement personnel and the additional resources needed to combat heroin use and tackle this challenge head-on."

In August of 2014, Schumer called on the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy to establish Ulster County as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Schumer explained that Ulster County previously applied for HIDTA designation but was denied the label in 2014. As a result, Schumer launched a renewed push to have the county receive this designation. As a part of his renewed push, Schumer cited a 2014 case in which 40 drug-trafficking arrests were made in Ulster County as part of the police department's "Operation Spring Cleaning" to underscore the need for continued vigilance and additional resources. As a part of the April 2014 sting, police seized 1,000 bags of heroin, which is only 400 fewer bags than the Ulster County Sherriff's Office seized in 2011 and 2012 combined. Schumer therefore urged ONDCP to designate Ulster County as a HIDTA in order to curb this emerging threat.

This designation will prioritize resources for Ulster County, as well as promote greater coordination between local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel in the region. In support of these efforts, the HIDTA program will fund intelligence-sharing initiatives, drug use prevention and drug treatment initiatives, and general support for programs that provide assistance to law enforcement beyond their normal scope of duty. Schumer said there are currently 28 HIDTAs across the U.S., including one for the New York-New Jersey region; the ONDCP announcement today adds 14 counties to those existing HIDTAs nationwide. Each HIDTA assesses the drug trafficking threat in its defined area for the upcoming year, develops a strategy to address that threat, designs initiatives to implement the strategy, proposes funding needed to carry out the initiatives, and prepares an annual report describing its performance the previous year.

Schumer noted that the goal of the federal government's drug policy is to build safe and healthy communities, and a HIDTA designation for Ulster would help supplement the hard work already being done by Ulster County law enforcement. Schumer said that this designation will now be critical to Ulster law enforcement, as they will now have many as resources at their disposal as possible in the fight against heroin usage and trafficking.

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