By GAGE WILSON
While the donation of property by Councilman Patrick Gaunce took up a majority of the Glasgow City Council’s time at the Monday night meeting, the council also listened to a very special year end report by Ron Lafferty, Director of the Barren River Drug Task Force (BRDTF) on its 20th anniversary with a troubling but optimistic report.
Lafferty had provided the council with a packet of data compiled by the agency showing the impact of various drugs found in the community.
“I think it’s very important that everybody know what is going on, what problems we are facing, and what we (the BRDTF) are doing to help solve those problems,” Lafferty said. Lafferty then began to explain to the council that the members which make the BRDTF included the Glasgow and Cave City Police Departments as well as the Barren and Metcalfe Sheriff’s Offices.
“We’re hoping to expand soon, but I won’t get into that right now,” Lafferty added.
Lafferty is also the Vice-President of the Kentucky Narcotics Officers Association (KNOA) and a member of the National Narcotics Officers’ Associations’ Coalition (NNOAC) both organizations aid in the passing of legislation to help drug task forces combat issues within their areas.
Lafferty emphasized the importance of task force communications across counties and states.
“I’ll give you an example, about two years ago a DTF officer from Texas was alerted to a shipment of what was believed to be fentanyl pills,” Lafferty said. “Tennessee missed it, so they called us because the knew us…so we set up on I-65 and waited four hours, and finally found the vehicle which contained 9,000 fentanyl pills.”
Lafferty then began taking council members through the graphs within their packets showing drug data from the Barren River area, with particular attention to Methamphetamine.
According to Lafferty, the drug task force has taken around 83 pounds of methamphetamine off the streets and all together have seized nearly $9 million worth of drugs. Lafferty also pointed out the BRDTF seized firearms and vehicles totaling $450,000 which are all too commonly mixed with higher end drug operations. All this over the span of over 4,000 cases the force worked.
After his nearly 30 minute report, Lafferty retired to his seat after being thanked for his work by the council.
If you or anyone you know struggles with addiction the National Drug Helpline is 1-844-289-0879.