(Guadalupe County) — Guadalupe County is being recognized as the state leader in the fight against drugs.
The Guadalupe County Narcotics Task Force has been named as The Narcotics Unit of the Year for 2020-2021. The task force was selected for the honor by the Texas Narcotic Officers Association (TNOA) during its annual banquet held Aug. 25 in Galveston.
Comprised of officers from the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office, the Seguin Police Department and the Cibolo Police Department, the task force consist of 13 team members with 192 years of combined experience. Plus, the task force includes three K-9 officers — all who are part of the overall team.
Accepting the award on behalf of the task force were Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke along with Seguin Police Chief Terry Nichols and Cibolo Police Chief Bryan Hugghins.
Zwicke, who helped initiate the task force a few years ago, says he is proud of the unit’s work and its ability to divert drug trafficking out of this area.
“You know actually and I don’t want to sound cocky but it wasn’t a surprise that we were selected. Watching these guys work and watching other groups — although there is a lot of good groups out there in the state of Texas but there are a lot of narcotics groups that have leaned on us for help and advice…”
“And so that tells me something when they are turning to the Guadalupe County Narcotics Unit and asking for help or asking for advice. I think that shows you something there. I appreciate the partnership between the city of Seguin, the city of Cibolo, working with us and the hard work of the team. They have done an excellent job. They are not a group of 8 to 5 Monday through Friday guys. These guys are out and about and they don’t give up until they get to the bottom of it,” said Zwicke.
When asked if they are winning the war on drugs, Zwicke says in Guadalupe County, the answer is yes.
“I want to say we are. We’re making a difference. If you look at Guadalupe County, our population goes up and our crime keeps going down so a lot of that is drug related and not to mention the forfeiture aspect of it. The proceeds we get back and that we put back into the community, back into equipment, back into the sheriff’s office along with the intel that these guys provide for different cases other than narcotics says a lot,” said Zwicke.
Seguin Police Chief Terry Nichols says there is not a more deserving team of officers. He says they work long hours, often at night, trying to make a difference by keeping drugs out of the community.
“It truly is a partnership. The sheriff’s department and Cibolo have been working together for a number of years and they were gracious enough to invite us to be a part of the unique unit about a year and a half ago and we jumped all over it. I’m very passionate about that.
Unfortunately when you do this type of work, you don’t get on the front page of the paper very often. The long term investigations — they can’t show their faces being involved with law enforcement and the undercover work they do so it’s nice for a state organization that focuses solely on narcotics enforcement to recognize their efforts,” said Nichols.
According to statistics for the years 2019 and 2020, the local task force seized a combined total of over $5 million in drugs and another $1 million in money and assets. A breakdown of the drugs taken off the streets includes 76,000 plus grams of marijuana; 1,326 plus grams of cocaine/crack; 26,000 plus grams of methamphetamine and 1,107 grams of heroin. Statistics also indicate nearly 600 drug arrests and almost 200 criminal firearms confiscated.
Nichols admits it felt really proud when others learned about what was going on here in our community.
“A lot of peoples’ jaws were dropping in that room listening to the stats that were put up just in Guadalupe County so very proud of them and they will continue the great work that they are doing,” said Nichols.
Law enforcement officials say confiscating criminal weapons while fighting the war on drugs is crucial to the safety of the community, Guadalupe County and the state of Texas as a whole. In addition, they say the stats for the narcotics unit also shows success in capturing three capital murder suspects in 2020.