SAN ANTONIO – Drug busts continue to be a big focus for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. So far this year, more than $1 million worth of narcotics have been taken off the streets by BCSO and its partner agencies.
“We work with all the area agencies -- federal, state and local,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. “We (also) work with the Texas Anti-Gang Initiative. It is concerning that we’re seeing these (drugs) come through, but on the bright side of things, we are doing a good job of catching it.”
In January, cocaine led the drug seizures at more than 23,000 grams with a street value of about $928,000, according to BCSO.
Methamphetamine, or meth, which is a potent and addictive stimulant drug, was listed as the second most common narcotic seized last month. More than 9,000 grams valued at nearly $200,000 were taken off the streets in Bexar County. In February, about $4,500 worth of meth was seized.
“For January, we were happy to report that we took about $1.1 million worth of narcotics off of the street,” Salazar said. “For February, it looks like we’re on track to better that. We’re already at about $900,000 worth of street value, and it looks like going to surpass our troubles from January.”
The goal is to prevent violent crimes. However, according to Salazar, the drugs that are more often linked to violence in Bexar County aren’t the kilos of meth or cocaine.
“It’s nickel and dime marijuana deals that are turning bad,” Salazar said. “We’ve actually seen more drug deals on misdemeanor amounts of marijuana go bad than the multi-kilogram cocaine cases.”
In January, BCSO seized 2,358.28 grams of marijuana with a street value of $47,135.20. Currently, 6,803.89 more grams of marijuana have been seized, valued at about $272,000.
“As parents, we should absolutely know that (drugs are) out there and that there really is no age that’s too young to have that talk with your kiddos,” Salazar said.
For anyone with information on the selling of narcotics or other organized crime activity, call BCSO’s Gang Tip Hotline at 210-335-4264.