Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Names Task Force Officer of the Year
The Executive Director of Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (AHIDTA), Vic Brown, announced the recipient of the West Virginia Task Force Officer of the Year award for 2021 is Corporal Owen Morris of the Charleston Police Department. He is assigned to the Metro Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT) Task Force, a joint effort led by the Charleston Police Department with participants from Nitro Police Department, St. Albans Police Department, Kanawha County Sheriff's Department, South Charleston Police Department, HSI, and DEA.
Corporal Morris is a 14-year veteran of the Charleston Police Department and has been assigned to the MDENT Task Force for the past year. In early 2021, Task Force Officer (TFO) Morris identified a violent drug trafficking organization that was supplying illicit drugs from Columbus, OH, and Atlanta, GA, to Kanawha County.
The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program is administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a component of the President's Executive Office and created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. ONDCP advises the President on drug-control issues, coordinates drug-control activities and related funding across the Federal government, and produces the National Drug Control Strategy, which outlines administration efforts to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences.
Appalachia HIDTA is an essential component of the President's National Drug Control Strategy. Law enforcement organizations within HIDTA assess drug trafficking problems and design specific initiatives to reduce or eliminate the production, manufacture, transportation, distribution, and chronic use of illegal drugs, as well as money laundering. The MDENT Task Force is a funded initiative of the AHIDTA program.
Director Brown said, "TFO Morris led an operation which dismantled a major drug trafficking organization resulting in 44 federal search warrants, 17 federal indictments, the seizure of 14 pounds of methamphetamine, 40 firearms, and approximately $90,000.00 in cash. TFO Morris is a credit to the Charleston Police Department, Appalachia HIDTA, and the communities he serves".
