Pinal County Sheriff’s Office regional High Intensity Drug Enforcement Unit received an “Excellence in Cooperative Law Enforcement Award” last week from the Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee. MPD is part of that task force.
The award was presented in Flagstaff at the Annual Law Enforcement / Prosecutors Conference. The task force is comprised of deputies and officers not only from the Maricopa Police Department, but also from the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Florence Police Department, Apache Junction Police Department, Coolidge Police Department, Eloy Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
From intelligence gathered in a ten-month investigation and a court authorized wiretap, investigators and special agents indicted twenty-one members of the Los Tusa (drug trafficking organization) including high-ranking Arizona-based members. Several of the lead defendants also face charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery related to their alleged scheme to impersonate law enforcement officers to rob and possibly murder competing drug traffickers.
The Arizona attorney general’s office assessed an approximate value in excess of $29.4 million dollars for the following seizures in this investigation: $418,640 U.S. (total for entire investigation); 3,500 pounds of marijuana (total for entire investigation); 12 vehicles prior to Title III; 19 vehicles during Title OOO (including makeshift police vehicle); 10 search warrants of residential and commercial properties; 20 arrests as a result of Title III (all indicted, 3 fugitives); 13 arrests prior to Title III; 9 weapons, including assault rifles.
Sheriff Babeu stated, “I am very proud of the combined efforts from the multi- jurisdictional narcotics task force. We will continue to disrupt and dismantle any group of individuals who are responsible for drug trafficking in Pinal County. We are bringing the fight to these armed criminals. We’ll take their drugs, cash, cars, houses and put them in jail. We will then use their dirty money for a lawful purpose to expand law enforcement service to our citizens.”
Submitted photo
![One of several flyers for a "TikTok rizz party" is taped to a door in the Maricopa Business Center along Honeycutt Road on April 23, 2024. [Monica D. Spencer]](https://www.inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/spencer-042324-tiktok-rizz-party-flyer-web-218x150.jpg "Maricopa’s ‘TikTok Rizz Party,’ explained")
![City Manager Ben Bitter speaks during a Chamber of Commerce event at Global Water Resources on April 11, 2024. Bitter discussed the current state of economic development in Maricopa, as well as hinting at lowering property tax rates again. [Monica D. Spencer]](https://www.inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/spencer-041124-ben-bitter-chamber-property-taxes-web-218x150.jpg "City gave new manager big low-interest home loan")
