Tribal Task Force Cracking Down on Drugs and Gangs

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Updated: 6:48 PM Jun 5, 2009 Tribal Task Force Cracking Down on Drugs and Gangs LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. (AP) -- The state Justice Department has launched a new effort to fight crime on Wisconsin reservations, and it's turning heads across the country. Posted: 4:44 PM Jun 5, 2009 Reporter: Associated Press

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LAC DU FLAMBEAU, Wis. (AP) -- The state Justice Department has launched a new effort to fight crime on Wisconsin reservations, and it's turning heads across the country.

Spurred by recent drug busts on the Lac Courte Oreilles and Lac Du Flambeau reservations, the Justice Department has quietly coaxed the state's tribal police departments into forming a one-of-a-kind task force to battle reservation drugs and gangs.

The Native American Drug and Gang Initiative has developed a core of American Indian undercover officers, enabling them to infiltrate tribal drug rings, given each tribe access to the state's central criminal data-sharing system and set up regular training for for tribal drug officers. In exchange the tribes have opened up to the state and shared their criminal intelligence files, helping connect bad guys traveling between reservations.

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