MERIDIAN, Idaho — On Tuesday, one of five Idaho State Police (ISP) personal shared his experience after being stationed in Arizona for two weeks to support Arizona State Police on drug interdiction at the U.S.-Mexico border in July.
“We returned from the border more motivated than ever to do all we can to keep the flood of fentanyl and meth out of Idaho communities,” said Sergeant Curt Sproat.
Sgt. Sproat joined Gov. Brad Little’s news briefing at the ISP headquarters in Meridian. ISP personal said that there has been an increase in illegal drugs coming to Idaho over the past three years.
“Fentanyl is coming to Idaho faster and it is more addicting and more dangerous than any drug we’ve seen,” said an ISP Colonel during the briefing.
Sgt. Sproat also shared about some of the skills the troopers gained in Arizona.
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“There were techniques and technology that we learned. Troopers at the border are dealing with drug traffickers and they get highly skilled in detection techniques. Those techniques are law enforcement sensitive. But what we can say being exposed of it, raise the level awareness how drug traffickers are operating,” Sgt. Sproat said.
Sproat said he saw the impact illicit drugs were having in the community near the southern border where they were stationed at.
“It was eye-opening for us. We worked in the southern border Arizona area. We would go down to town in that area or cities and literally fentanyl drug dealers in every corner. Impaired driving was awful. Like alluded to earlier, these people are so addicted to these highly addictive drugs it totally consumes it,” Sgt. Sproat said. “They start committing crimes some of them violent crime. That was the most dangerous place I’ve work in my career.
Little said meth and fentanyl is the biggest drug threat facing the state, which he says law enforcement agencies are finding that it’s making its way to Idaho from the U.S. Mexican border.
“There is a direct tied to the loose border in Mexico,” Little said.
At the briefing, he explained there are 10 policies he and other state governors created to address the border crisis.
“Proposed 10 concrete solutions to immediately alleviate the crisis, solutions range from securing the border, dedicating federal resources to eradicate human trafficking and drug trafficking. Reinstating numerous policies that help stop the follow illegal immigration and sending a clear message to potential migrants,” he said.
