Sheriffs and other law enforcement personnel from five Northwest Montana counties and the Montana Highway Patrol met with U.S. Sen. Steve Daines on April 18 in Missoula to further address the growing methamphetamine epidemic.

Missoula County Sheriff TJ McDermott hosted the event at the sheriff’s meeting room.

Also attending were Lake County Sheriff/Coroner Don Bell; Flathead County Sheriff Brian Heino; Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short; and Ravalli County Sheriff Stephen Holton; local police department officers; and other drug enforcement personnel.

There is the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, headquartered in Kalispell, and a drug task force in Missoula County as well.

Bell said he was contacted by Sen. Daines with a request to get the local sheriffs together for a “roundtable” discussion involving drug task force members.

“We all told the senator what our main concerns are,” Bell said, adding that there were other drug task force meetings, “but never quite like this. It was nice to have a meeting with Sen. Daines and other law enforcement … We’re moving in a positive direction. We’re looking into federal grants for which we might qualify.”

BELL EXPLAINED that the NW MT Drug Task Force is made possible by a grant. The task force’s mission is to target, disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations, and pursue street level interdiction through the cooperative effort of local, state and federal agencies.

There is also a Homeland Security Grant Program allocation for Operation Stonegarden (OPSG). It funds a range of preparedness activities.

“It’s working with the Border Patrol and local law enforcement. It pays overtime for extra [drug trafficking] patrols. All this would be in Lake County,” Bell said.

He said that is a Drug Task Force for different regions, and Northwest Montana is headed out of Flathead County. Heino is the director. There is also a drug task force in Missoula County.

“We have a severe use of meth in the [Mission] valley,” Bell said. “It destroys families, lives. We would love to have a treatment center built here … [A] Drug is a great deceiver.”

There was a task force meeting in Kalispell in late March. The Northwest Montana Drug Task Force will next meet in May.

For more information about the NW MT Drug Task Force, go online to: http://flatheadcountysheriff.com/northwest-drug-task-force/.