ELKINS, W.Va. — The sheriff of Randolph County says while the near-completion of Corridor H through the eastern mountains of West Virginia is a good thing, the highway is also allowing more drug traffickers to enter from out of state.
“It’s soon be completed this roadway, but it’s completed enough that the traffic is higher coming through here and a lot of the drugs are coming right through our area,” Sheriff Robert Elbon told MetroNews Thursday.
Elbon said many of those drugs are coming from the Washington, D.C. area, along with Detroit, Michigan and Ohio. The county has been working for years to gain the attention of federal officials about the issue.
On Wednesday, Randolph County became the 24th county in West Virginia to be designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
“Out of the 55 counties, we’re getting close to halfway covered, so that’s a big help in trying to control this stuff,” Elbon said.
Elbon said the designation means federal funding and additional resources will be made available to federal, state and local law enforcement officials to combat the spread of drugs in the area.
“That’s going to give us expanded overtime for our task force officers. There’s resources for fuel and different things like that. Sometimes vehicles are brought into the equation, of course all the federal resources with the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration),” he said.
Addressing the drug crisis in Randolph County and statewide is one of Elbon’s top priorities. He said his office can get a better handle on the problem with the help of outside law enforcement agencies.
“Once we’re working on something, we have the federal backing behind us to find out intel and different things that normally we wouldn’t have,” he said.
Elbon joined officials including U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), White House Drug Czar for former state health officer Dr. Rahul Gupta and U.S. Attorney Bill Ihlenfeld Wednesday for the HIDTA announcement in Elkins.
“We have sought the HIDTA designation for Randolph County for several years now and it is very exciting to see that finally be approved,” Randolph County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Parker told MetroNews in a Thursday statement.
Parker went on write, “The extra resources that will be provided for the Mountain Region Drug and Violent Crime Task Force as a result of the HIDTA designation will help us continue the very important work of the task force. We have already felt the positive impact of the designation with the DEA committing to providing an agent to Randolph County. We look forward to utilizing all of the benefits and extra resources that come with the designation to make our community a safer place.”
Randolph County leaders will be learning more about the additional resources in the weeks to come.