ICE HSI New Orleans recognizes multi-state narcotics interdiction efforts

GULFPORT, Miss. – In recognition of the more than $163 million in narcotics and illicit assets seized in 2021, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New Orleans and the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) office hosted a training program and awards presentation in Biloxi, Mississippi March 9-10.

HSI combats the opioid crisis by deploying specialized skills and resources to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations responsible for smuggling and distributing dangerous narcotics throughout the southwest. The Blue Lighting Operation Center (BLOC) in Gulfport is an HSI program which partners with the Gulf Coast HIDTA as an intelligence and information sharing initiative known as the BLOC/HIDTA Watch Center.

This initiative provides real-time, tactical intelligence and information to more than 280 federal, state, and local law enforcement partners engaged in drug law enforcement and highway interdiction with the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee.

The HSI Blue Lightening Operations Center and the HIDTA operate between the major drug corridors along the Southwest Border and lucrative distribution markets along the East Coast and in the Midwest. This results in significant illicit transshipment activity, including drugs and aliens, by drug trafficking organizations on the U.S. interstate highway system. These same organizations transport illicit proceeds of their enterprise in bulk cash and weapons to the Mexican border. In Mississippi, the counties designated as HIDTA status are Forrest, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Jackson, Lafayette, Madison, and Rankin. In Louisiana, the parishes are Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Lafayette, Orleans, and Ouachita.

The award ceremony was an opportunity to recognize the collaborative efforts and successful work of these law enforcement partnerships in combating drug trafficking in the southeast. For every overtime dollar spent in 2021, $344 was returned in narcotics and asset seizures.

HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,000 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.