State police discuss combating drug trafficking in western New York State

ROCHESTER, NY — New York State Police are trying to stem the flow of illegal drugs into our area after a Venezuelan gang with ties to Rochester was designated a terrorist organization.

At a press conference earlier this week, a sheriff in Texas showed a map showing the area of ​​influence of the gang known as the Tren de Aragua, or TDA. On the map, a dot is marked over Western New York.

State police officials News10NBC spoke to would not talk specifically about the gang because they don't want to warn the bad guys. However, police did explain some of the tools they have to combat drug trafficking.

According to police spokeswoman Lynnea Crane, no single agency is in charge. It is a collaboration that begins with local police and extends to agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency. One important player that you might not expect is the postal service. They scan packages and confiscate a lot of drugs every day.

The State Police, like many other agencies, is part of teams and task forces across the state that work to combat drug trafficking. They use informants, conduct undercover operations, and search social media and other online resources. It is an ongoing operation that is particularly intense in our area.

Trooper Crane says we're in for a lot of action sitting right along the I-90 corridor.

“This is a slap in the face. This is what brings illegal drugs into our community and creates drug addiction and that leads to a lot of other problems. So we are very committed to making sure this doesn't happen and reach New York State,” she said.

All of their information goes into what Trooper Crane calls a fusion center. It's an information hub where they collect everything on local, national and international gangs. Then they send the information to agencies across the state who help arrest gangs both large and small.

We just saw this work in action during a massive drug raid in Ontario County. Trooper Crane gave some numbers on the raid to illustrate the magnitude. 20 people are facing drug trafficking charges:

• 16 pounds of cocaine
• Three pounds of liquid xylzine, a stronger version of fentanyl
• Five pounds of fentanyl
• Hundreds of pills,
• Half a pound of meth
• Over 500 pounds of black market weed per month
• Two pounds of heroin
• Eight pistols, including a machine gun.

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