Smith County Sheriff holds press conference on North Texas Criminal Interdiction Unit

TYLER, Texas (KETK) – The Smith County Sheriff and President of the Sheriff’s Association of Texas Larry Smith held a press conference Wednesday with North Texas law enforcement.

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Smith moderated the event with Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner and Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn concerning the North Texas Criminal Interdiction Unit (NTXCIU).

The press conference focused on the work NTXCIUhas done in the past seven years in their mission to fight against illegal drugs in local Texas communities.

According to the Collin County Sheriff’s Office, NTXCIUis a “multi-jurisdictional team of specially trained deputies whose mission is to detect, interdict and disrupt the flow of dangerous drugs, narcotics, contraband and human cargo on establish smuggling corridors on North Texas highways.”

Skinner said they formed the interdiction unit in 2017 but laws were changed to allow the North Texas Sheriffs to work together.

NTXCIU operates out of the North Texas Fusion Center along with Grayson, Hunt, Parker, Rockwall, Smith, Tarrant and Wise counties.

Skinner said the DFW area has become a hub for Mexican drug cartels that bring drugs into the country.

“They repackage them for national distribution and then they head out in every direction,” Skinner said.

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Due to the collaborative effort between the counties, they claim they have been successful in seizing trafficked items and drugs.

“We’ve recovered automatic weapons, ammunition, and an enormous amount, many tons of drugs coming north and flowing into our communities, and this is not done without an enormous amount of bravery coming from these deputies,” Skinner said.

Deputies across counties have partnered to patrol, identify, take down drug and human traffickers, “dirty” money and dangerous weapons.

“Nearly $70 million worth of drugs taken off the street, over 500 arrests that have been made,” Waybourn said. “I would like to mention this: there were 103 pounds of pure fentanyl that’s enough to take 24 million lives.”

The sheriffs also asked parents to closely monitor their children’s social media and networking. Officials said several young people have died from taking drugs that they got from their friends thinking it’s something that it is not, reminding people that “one pill kills.”

“Our youth are going to continue dying from the illicit manufacture and transportation of fentanyl and it’s all over the United States. There is not one state that’s exempt from fentanyl deaths,” Smith said.

The sheriffs said that the drugs are coming through the border, traveling through the state and many times staying in our neighborhoods.

“Make no mistake, the Sinaloa and Jalisco new generation cartels are responsible for 95% of the death and destruction that flows into the United States, we’ve had hundreds of thousands of Americans killed from fatal fentanyl poisonings just over the last couple of years,” Skinner said.

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They said, the work that NTXCIU does every day is proof that major problems still exist and they believe it’s time for the federal government to step in.

“Given the number of the people that they’re killing, at some point the United States government is going to have to get some guts and deal with that threat to our national security and certainly to our public safety,” Waybourn said.

The NTXCIU claimed it’s their team’s bravery that keeps their communities safe.

“We will win this war. We will not rest until the cartel is out of business,” Waybourn said.

For the NTXCIU their work doesn’t stop in Texas. They explained how they are at the call of American sheriffs, their specially trained deputies have traveled to other states to lead training when they can.

The full press conference can be viewed in the video below:

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