Feds: New Castle County is high drug trafficking area

NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELAWARE (1/8/2015) A new federal designation will help New Castle County get additional support to fight drug trafficking.

The county joins four others in the regionĀ as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The others are Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania and Camden County in New Jersey.

The designation was announced Wednesday by Michael Botticelli, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

“The designation will enable the county to receive federal resources to further the coordination and development of drug control efforts among Federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement officers in Delaware, and allow local agencies to benefit from ongoing HIDTA initiatives working to reduce drug use and its consequences across the United States,” according to a news release.

Delaware’s congressional delegation had requested the designation, and its announcement was hailed by Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons as well as Rep. Jack Carney and Gov. Jack Markell.