I've learned that the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy will designate Jefferson County as a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" or "HIDTA," opening up federal dollars to be used by local law enforcement for drug interdiction.

The big question now will become which law enforcement agencies in Jefferson County qualify for a piece of that pie? In April, I revealed the existence of a secret Jefferson County Sheriff Department task force, the Kentuckiana Criminal Interdiction Unit, which was formed within the last year with HIDTA in mind. It consists of a former DEA agent as the commanding officer, two Jefferson County deputies and a Bullitt County Sheriff's deputy. The unit at that time had done a significant chunk of their work at Bullitt County truck stops.

But the very existence of a drug interdiction unit operated by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department galls the Louisville Metro Police Department, which believes the Sheriff's unit is problematic for the ongoing efforts of Metro Narcotics. Up until this unit, the duties of the Sheriff's department in Jefferson County mainly consisted of serving warrants, evicting people, courthouse security and security assistance for public events. Bottom line -- what it probably means is that the Sheriff's department will get some of the HIDTA money that otherwise would have gone to LMPD.

The current HIDTA in this region is the Appalachia HIDTA which has a $6 million budget, used to reimburse local law enforcement task forces mainly busting marijuana growing operations in southeast Kentucky and parts of Tennessee and West Virginia. It appears that the Jefferson County addition to the Appalachia HIDTA expands that role into interdicting drugs where they are distributed as well.

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