"Drugs aren't stopping right at the border of Southampton town. It's coming from Brookhaven. It's coming from Riverhead, Southold. It's coming from Manhattan," Southampton's PBA President Patrick Aube said.
Authorities say heroin-related addition and crime have crept all the way to the Long Island's East End, where small police departments like Southampton have limited resources to confront a growing problem.
"If you are a local cop and you're going undercover into the schools or elsewhere, chances are everyone knows who you are," Throne-Holst said.
Town supervisor Anna Throne-Holst stood with Suffolk Disitrct Attorney Tom Spota on Wednesday to announce her officers will now join cops from a dozen other agencies in the East End Drug Task Force, which has been racking up dozens of drug arrests including 20 in just the past two days.
"As God as my judge we are going to commit every resource that we have to stop this is poison," Spota said.
A nine-month investigation led to what Spota calls the East End's biggest bust ever, breaking up three different rings which allegedly imported almost two million dollars worth of heroin every year to the towns of the East End.
Spota says the task force works because small agencies can pool their officers, allowing for more effective operations undercover.
Aube says the task force will be a much needed shot in the arm in the fight against heroin.
"It's a game and our goal is to try to win the game and beat them so no families are hurt," he said.
So now this task force will comprise a dozen different agencies and be able to conduct undercover operations all across the East End as authorities try to control the spread of heroin into the Hamptons.
