Schumer: Administration Budget Slashes Funding for Critical Long Island Drug Enforcement Program - Could Hamper Efforts to Crack Down on Heroin Use Among Li Teens

Press Release

Joined by law enforcement officials from Nassau and Suffolk County, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer revealed that the Administration's Fiscal Year 2011 budget slashes funding for a critical program aimed at curbing heroin trafficking, sales, and abuse on Long Island. Schumer said that Nassau and Suffolk are part of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program that provides local Nassau and Suffolk Counties access to millions of dollars in resources to help attack the heroin problem on Long Island. The Administration's budget slashes the program by 12 percent which could translate to a loss of nearly $1.5 million for New York City area operations at a time when heroin-related arrests have skyrocketed. In Nassau alone, there have been over 150 heroin-related arrests since the beginning of the new year. Schumer announced he will fight to restore the cuts before the final appropriations bill is approved in the fall.

"Even one teenager using heroin is one too many, but now on Long Island, the rash of heroin use has touched dozens of communities in all corners of Long Island. It has devastated families and severely impacted schools, and neighborhoods and villages. Nassau, Suffolk, State, and Federal law enforcement are working around the close to crack down on the criminals who sell this terrible drug to our kids. This critical funding provides invaluable resources to Nassau and Suffolk law enforcement who are on the ground here on Long Island in the war against heroin. We simply cannot allow the feds to pull back now -- it's bad policy and unacceptable, and I am going to fight tooth and nail to stop it."

"We appreciate the support from Senator Schumer in restoring this funding. Nassau County is battling a very real and very frightening heroin epidemic. We do not want to lose any more of our young people to this evil drug," said Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano.

"Here in Nassau County we have taken an aggressive approach to combating the current heroin epidemic that includes, Enforcement, a Parental Awareness Campaign and an Educational Initiative," said Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey. "As law enforcement officials we are attacking this issue from every angle but we recognize the importance of enforcement To that end, it is imperative that we continue to receive the resources and funding available in an effort to combat this issue that is ruining countless lives and families."

The HIDTA program was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to provide assistance to federal, state and local law enforcement entities operating in areas most adversely affected by drug trafficking. A central feature of the HIDTA program is the discretion granted to HIDTA Executive Boards to design a strategy to respond to the specific drug trafficking threats found in each HIDTA region and to develop initiatives to implement the strategy. This discretion ensures that each HIDTA Executive Board can tailor its strategy and initiatives closely to local conditions and can respond quickly to changes in those conditions.

In the Administrations Fiscal Year 2011 Budget, the Administration proposed cutting HIDTA funding by 12 percent from $239 million down to $210 million. Schumer said this would translate to an estimated cut of between $1.2 million to $1.5 million cut for the New York HIDTA that covers both Long Island counties. The New York HIDTA received some $10 million last year. With these funds the New York HIDTA has developed the Investigative Support Center (ISC), one of the largest, most comprehensive criminal intelligence centers in the country, consisting of over 600 officers and crime analysts. Law enforcement agencies throughout the region are able to share information through various components of the ISC. The New York HIDTA has also developed the Narcotics Intelligence Unit to provide strategic analysis and case support for drug-related investigations, as well as several pointed task forces to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking networks.

On Long Island, HIDTA provides agencies with equipment and technology, and additional resources combat drug trafficking. Specifically, HIDTA funding has been used to provide Nassau and Suffolk law enforcement, laptop computers, surveillance equipment, high-precisions cameras and other computer equipment.

Specifically, in Nassau, The Asset Forfeiture and Intelligence Unit of the Nassau County Police Department is also a HIDTA center. This unit acts as a training center for members to participate in the exceptional training that HIDTA offers and accommodates their needs for a training facility. Members of the Nassau County Police Department and local villages and law enforcement agencies have been able to participate in training that includes analytical investigative techniques, vehicle stops and drug trafficking, and financial investigations.

In Suffolk, HIDTA funding pays for research analysts that track cases and patterns of heroin trafficking and can fund local agents in the field investigating heroin cases. In both counties, HIDTA training is a key aspect of anti-drug efforts.

Heroin is frequently abused in the region, and its abuse has spread to new and younger populations. Distributors in New Jersey are targeting customers in smaller towns and rural areas to gain market share. The purity of South American (SA) heroin, the predominant type available in the region, is relatively high but has been gradually decreasing over the past several years.

Declining heroin purity has contributed to local abusers injecting larger heroin doses or injecting more frequently. Heroin availability has increased in Upstate New York, which has led to a corresponding increase in the number of urban and suburban youths from outlying rural counties traveling to Albany, Erie, Monroe, and Onondaga Counties to obtain the drug for personal use. The number of heroin-related treatment admissions to publicly funded facilities in the region far exceeds that of any other drug, and heroin milling is increasing in the HIDTA region.

The NY/NJ HIDTA region is a national distribution center for illicit drugs, primarily cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Multikilogram to metric ton quantities of these drugs are transported to the region from drug source and transit countries such as Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico as well as from domestic locations such as Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the Southwest Border area. Wholesale quantities of illicit drugs that enter the region are typically divided into smaller quantities for further distribution within the region or in drug markets throughout the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest.

In response to these cuts, today Schumer announced he is joining with a bi-partisan group of Senators to fight the cuts. He has made a direct appeal to the Chairman and Ranking members of the Senate Budget Committee asking them to restore the funding in the final Congressional budget.

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