(KTNC) - Two southeast Nebraska drug task forces will have to disband after they lost federal funding. The Southeast Area Drug Enforcement Task Force – or SEADE – and the Rural Apprehension Task Force – or RAP – will cease operation.
Beatrice Police Chief Bruce Lang, who headed the SEADE Task Force, says neither group got federal funding last year either and they were able to make do, but that’s no longer the case.
The federal funds are funneled through the Nebraska Crime Commission. Commission grants administrator Lisa Stamm says the SEADE Task Force lost its federal funding because it didn't arrest any top operators in the sale of illegal drugs. She says the task force focused on street-level buys, “and the feds are looking at more mid-to-upper level buys.”
SEADE had employed two investigators and a part-time assistant, who will now go back to the local law enforcement agencies where they had worked as officers. The RAP Task Force covered areas around Fairbury, Wilber, Crete, and Seward.
Lang says the local law enforcement agencies across the six-county area covered by the SEADE Task Force will have to pick up their own drug investigations.
© MSC News
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