Nine Months into Operation Lone Star, Texas DPS Reports Record Interdiction Numbers
January 21, 2022 | Texas
(The Center Square) – Since March 2021, when Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star (OLS), Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) state troopers have been working around the clock to help defend the southern border. Nine months later, its chief reports a record for state interdiction efforts.
Since OLS began, state troopers have arrested more than 10,000 illegal immigrants, including smugglers and drug traffickers, Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw said Wednesday at a Texas Public Policy Foundation event in Austin. They’ve seized over 5 tons of methamphetamine, over $17 million in cash, and enough fentanyl to kill over 260 million people.
The operation integrates DPS state troopers with the Texas National Guard to deploy air, ground, marine and tactical border security assets to high-threat areas to prevent and or mitigate Mexican cartels’ human and drug smuggling operations into Texas.
“Texas supports legal immigration but will not be an accomplice to the open border policies that cause, rather than prevent, a humanitarian crisis in our state and endanger the lives of Texans,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when he launched the operation. “We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis.”… (Excerpts from The Center Square)
