YUMA, Ariz. – In a meeting with federal officials Monday – Arizona governor Doug Ducey asked for more federal funding and resources to combat drug and human trafficking coming in from the state.
“More funding. More assets – more planes, helicopters, radios and equipment added to our arsenal. More personnel – troopers, analysts, pilots – people to gather intelligence on these criminals, and people to take them down,” said Ducey.
Sharing roughly 370 miles of a border with Mexico, the governor says Arizona is the front door to a national drug trafficking epidemic. Citing a time between 2012 to 2014 where data suggests almost 500 drug seizures in 30 other states were connected back to Arizona.
“Arizona must hold the line. for the sake of every state, every community, and every family in this country, and we intend to do so but we can’t do it alone,” said Ducey.
As the governor testified before a special field hearing of the United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake listened in.
Governor Ducey calling for support of the Arizona Border Strike Force Bureau which he created this year. He said since September the task force seized more than $2.2 million multiple firearms nearly 4,000 pounds of marijuana 73 pounds of meth nearly 19 pounds of heroin.
Ducey said, “In a state like Arizona, the cost of combatting the drug cartels alone would be too large to bear.”