Name
Lunch and Panel Session - High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Program Update
Date & Time
Tuesday, November 13, 2018, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Hugo Barrera Dawn Mertz Jeffrey B. Stamm
Description
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, provides assistance to Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States. There are currently 28 HIDTAs, which include approximately 18 percent of all counties in the United States and 66 percent of the U.S. population. HIDTA-designated counties are located in 49 states, as well as in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.

This special panel session comprised of Executive Directors from HIDTA will delve into the details of the coordinated programs in each of their areas.

The purpose of the HIDTA program is to reduce drug trafficking and production in the United States by:
• Facilitating cooperation among Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to share information and implement coordinated enforcement activities;
• Enhancing law enforcement intelligence sharing among Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies;
• Providing reliable law enforcement intelligence to law enforcement agencies to facilitate the design of effective enforcement strategies and operations; and
• Supporting coordinated law enforcement strategies that make the most of available resources to reduce the supply of illegal drugs in designated areas of the United States and in the nation as a whole.