A drug task force seized black tar heroin in the I-15 corridor in July.
Cocaine was seized over the month of July.
Thirty pounds of meth was seized in July by a local drug task force.LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
More drugs were found in July in Las Vegas than all of last year.
Law enforcement officers found 24 pounds of pot, 30 pounds of methamphetamine, 22 pounds of cocaine and nine pounds of heroin.
The drugs were found in traffic stops along Interstate 15 just north and south of Las Vegas by law enforcement officers. Those officers belong to a drug task force under the Nevada High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA).
The task force includes a collection of officers and detectives from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Henderson Police Department, Nevada Highway Patrol, and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
"They go out on the highway and do basic highway enforcement," said HIDTA Executive Director L. Kent Bitsko. "As they run into people that (officers) think are suspicious and doing something they shouldn't be, they will tailor their interviews to try to lead them to what those people are doing."
HIDTA said I-15 has become a drug shipment corridor between Southern California and Las Vegas.
The task force has netted an unusually high amount of drugs in Nevada. Bitsko can't say if good police work is behind the seizures.
"I'm really hoping so. I'm hoping it's not an indication of a lot more drugs coming into Southern Nevada. We're going to have to wait and see how the rest of the year goes to see if this is a true trend."
Academics who study police efforts to get drugs off the streets, like UNLV Criminal Justice Professor Dr. William Sousa, also say it's not always clear.
"Even a large drug bust is just the tip of the iceberg, and police agencies are aware of that as well."
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