North Texas Interdiction Unit fighting drug and human trafficking in Grayson County

MCKINNEY, Texas (KXII) – On Tuesday, the North Texas Interdiction Unit held a press conference at the Collin County Sheriff’s Office in McKinney to share its achievements over the past six years.

Grayson County Sheriff, Tom Watt, and Collin County Sheriff, Jim Skinner, teamed up in 2017 to combat drug and human trafficking on US Highway 75.

“A lot of people think of I-35 as the main drug corridor,” Watt said, “The cartels use 75, we know from research that they prefer 75.

After the two saw success in their partnership, six other Texas sheriffs joined to expand the fight to other North Texas highways.

In 2018, the North Texas Criminal Interdiction Unit began operations made up of deputies from Collin, Grayson, Hunt, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Smith, and Wise Counties.

Since then the unit has seized $7.9 million in hidden cash, 7,913 lbs. of marijuana, 6,048 lbs of methamphetamine, and 103 lbs. of fentanyl in addition to rescuing three abducted children and making over 570 felony arrests.

While the unit is made up of deputies from the different counties they are uniformed as one unit.

“What we decided to do is to work together is to take deputies to dress them identically, to put them in cars without a county name on it but the label of cars as sheriff’s criminal interdiction units,” Skinner said.

Watt said the NTXCIU deputies have undergone specific training that goes beyond writing tickets.

“It’s about what are you seeing in the car?” Watt said, “What are you seeing in the restaurant that just doesn’t match up to what the person is purporting as their reality?”

The North Texas Criminal Interdiction Unit is the first of its kind in the state but leaders have encouraged parts of Texas and the country to start similar units.

Sheriff Watt helped start the unit and when he retires at the end of the year, the next sheriff, Tony Bennie, will take over.

“I don’t think we’ll skip a beat at all,” Watt said.

Watt said the NTXCIU has reduced the number of criminals traveling US Highway 75 without being caught and expects this number to continue decreasing.

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