Sheriff to organize drug task force

St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz plans to create a multi-agency drug task force in the parish by the end of the year.
“In late 2006, I began to plan the task force,” Guidroz said. “It was one of my points when I was running for this office.
“At that time, I could not get any other officers from any other departments, but I had eight to 10 from this office. We are not ready to form the task force yet. Officers are working cases that require their full attention right now, and we will get together when their time is freed up.”
Guidroz has eight officers on his department’s own drug task force, and he has received commitments of one officer each from Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot and Opelousas Police Chief Ronald Thompson. The department also receives assistance from the Louisiana State Police and Drug Enforcement Agency task forces.
The sheriff said he would like to have an officer from each parish municipality on the drug task force, but he acknowledged that some smaller communities do not have enough manpower to participate in the group.
“Each agency has their own narcotics team,” Guidroz said. “We are busy, and they are just as busy as we are. It’s hard to break away.
“It’s going to take more then our (the sheriff’s office) task force. We have to keep kicking the ant pile.”
Guidroz said the ultimate goal of the task force is to update information on dealers through intelligence and take down those dealing drugs in the parish.
“Street users are not the priority here,” he said. “We are targeting the distributors. We could get a street user every 15 minutes if we tried. They are not flipping and telling who their dealers are.
“The drug problem is terrible all over, inside and outside of the incorporated areas in the parish. It’s getting worse and worse, it appears.”
In addition to targeting dealers, Guidroz had several other concepts for curbing drug crimes in the parish.
“We need to get the feds involved with local and state agencies to help bring down the drug producers in other states and countries,” he said. “The plants used for cocaine are not being grown in Louisiana. They are being gown in Columbia and Mexico. We need assistance to keep the drugs out of the country.
“Second, jail is not the answer to solve the drug problem. We need drug treatment centers. There are not enough of them, and I know they cost money. Drug addiction is a medical sickness. Third, prosecutors need to prosecute violent and repeat offenders to the fullest extent of the law. This needs to be all over the country, not just here.”
At Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen’s meeting, Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot advised the aldermen and mayor that, “We are working with the sheriff’s office and the Opelousas Police Department and other police departments in the parish to reorganize the St. Landry Parish Drug Task Force.”
Fontenot said the task force would mean more narcotics officers working in Eunice. 
“Of course, at the same time, our officer will be on loan working out in the parish,” he said. 
“They can make a lot of headway with the drug problems that we are having in town and elsewhere in the parish,” Fontenot said of the task force. 
“It is a good cooperative effort to attack the drug problems we are having in Eunice,” he said. 
Alderman approved the chief’s request to hire Kevin McFarlain, formerly a deputy marshal, to work narcotics in the detective’s section. 
“We didn’t really have a narcotic’s section in awhile because we were shorthanded,” Fontenot said at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen’s meeting.