Nebraska State Patrol / FBI Sting

Good morning, this is Brian Hale with Panhandle Scanner. We have some breaking news from across the state. The NSP, the FBI, and local law enforcement agencies work together to accomplish an operation that has been going on for several months. We all know that Nebraska has a drug trafficking problem for some time. methamphetamine has been the state's drug of choice, but drugs don't only affect the big city. We believe that until they clean up the smaller towns, the problems will continue. Recently, the FBI, the Nebraska State Patrol, and several local agencies work together to do just that. Law enforcement officers are reporting that nearly 30 people were arrested yesterday for a total of over 50 arrests during this operation, many of them from smaller communities like Brule, Ogallala, and North Platte. Tremendous cooperation was accomplished in the mission that had been ongoing for some time. Law enforcement officials emphasized that this was not an overnight affair. This took long hours with several agencies working overtime. Today's arrest is something that just happened today. It's a culmination of a two-year investigation by FBI Omaha, our North Platt resident agency, and our code task force, many of whom are represented here today. The full-time members of the code task force are Nebraska State Patrol, HSI Homeland Security Investigations, North Platt Police Department, Lexington Police Department, the FBI, and then several other part-time agencies. Throughout the course of the investigation, we've made over 55 arrests obtained over 34 federal indictments, legal narcotics and firearms have also been seized throughout the course of the investigation. I can't go into too many details on the case. What I can tell you, though, and what I can't emphasize is the vital importance partnerships play in protecting our community from drug trafficking. You can listen to that full FBI press release on our blog at diggingdeeper.net. A list of arrests are included in the article with the link to 10-11 now, as well as the North Platt TV station KNOP. Just follow the links in the article. For more police and crime stories, follow our news blog at diggingdeeper.net. Just click on the police tab. That's going to do it for our breaking news this morning from Panhandle Scanner. Thanks again for listening, and may God bless. I'm Brian Hale.