LAS VEGAS -- Meth seizures along I-15 in southern Nevada have more than doubled from 2010 to 2011, with the majority of the drug coming from Mexico, smuggled by sophisticated drug trafficking organizations.
For that reason, the investigators who work the highways wanted to conceal their identities. With millions of dollars at stake, there's little some criminals won't do to protect their investment.
Tens of millions of cars and trucks travel Nevada highways every year -- cars with commuters, tourists, and in some cases, contraband.
A Nevada Highway Patrol sergeant supervises an elite team of investigators charged with disrupting the flow of illegal narcotics from Mexico through Nevada, to all points north and east.
"We see everything," he said.
The Southern Nevada Interdiction Task Force includes NHP, Metro and Henderson Police Departments, and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. This night, a routine traffic stop raises red flags for a trooper -- the husband in the car is giving one last name, while his wife is giving another.
While investigators try to identify the conflicting last names, the driver consents to a search of her car. The couple, with their two-year-old daughter in tow, tell police they're coming from Pueblo, Colorado to visit relatives in "some city north of Los Angeles."
"It really boils down to the interview. If I'm traveling with my wife and my children, I know where we're going, she knows where we're going," said the sergeant.
Drug couriers, however, may know little about their traveling companions, so investigators exploit seemingly trivial inconsistencies to uncover hidden cargo -- like the more than 400 pounds of cocaine recently recovered, $16 million worth, from a trucker whose story didn't match his log books.
"Whether it be 10 pounds, 20 pounds or 400 pounds, it's really not the number that we're looking for, it's the consistency and every little bit counts," said the sergeant.
To combat the near unlimited resources of drug trafficking organizations, the task force operates under the umbrella of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Through it, state and local law enforcement receive federal dollars and investigative support.
"The patterns in narcotics enforcement change on a pretty regular basis," said Kent Bitsko, the executive director of Nevada HIDTA. "We seem to always be playing catch up because we have a very finite amount of resources. So I would like to think we are catching up right now and that's why we're doing so well in the last few months."
In addition to the largest cocaine bust in Nevada history, another HIDTA task force seized more than 200 pounds of methamphetamine in July. Because of its widespread availability, low price and high purity, Bitsko names meth as the state's number one drug threat.
"The big arrests that we've had didn't seem to effect the going price on the street for meth at all. That tells you how much that we're actually getting here in Nevada," he said.
Some estimates suggest law enforcement finds 10 percent of the drugs trafficked nationwide, a figure the sergeant calls overly optimistic.
Back on the highway, Metro K9 Officer Bebe sniffs unsuccessfully for the next big seizure. Satisfied the couple is not carrying narcotics, the task force returns to the road, scanning thousands of vehicles for one carrying a load.
"It's just a numbers game. The more we're out there and the more stops we make, the more likely we are to pick up a good case," said the sergeant.
Though seizures are up, the officers can't say for sure whether more drugs are coming through or if they're just getting better at finding them. Either way, they say they're out seven days a week to stop as much as they can.
