{"id":23632,"date":"2025-02-08T01:19:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T08:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-narcotics-team-announces-seizure-of-trafficked-drugs\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:40:04","slug":"montezuma-cortez-narcotics-team-announces-seizure-of-trafficked-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-narcotics-team-announces-seizure-of-trafficked-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez narcotics team announces seizure of trafficked drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"On
On Wednesday, the Montezuma Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team and other partners seized more than 6 pounds of meth, 3 pounds of cocaine, $14,000 in cash and a defaced firearm. (Montezuma Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team announced that it seized nearly 10 pounds of drugs and thousands of dollars in cash in an operation Wednesday that included assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affair\u2019s Division of Drug Enforcement and the Cortez Police Department.<\/p>\n

The teams confiscated drugs and money that had been trafficked into Montezuma County, including 6.3 pounds of methamphetamine, 3.1 pounds of cocaine, a defaced firearm and more than $14,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cMCNIT continues to prevent large trafficking organizations from conducting business in Montezuma County, the Four Corners Region and the state of Colorado,\u201d the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation team said via Facebook. \u201cThis large investigation shows our commitment to keeping our community safe, and we will continue to be vigilant against these types of crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"About
About 6.1 pounds of meth was seized. (Montezuma Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Because of the nature of the investigation, members of the narcotics investigation team did not provide additional details.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of right now, the Montezuma-Narcotics Investigation Team is one of the smallest ones, if not the smallest drug task force in the state of Colorado,\u201d said Sheriff\u2019s Detective Sgt. Victor Galarza, the lead investigator on the case and\u00a0narcotics team supervisor. \u201cOur job is to identify, infiltrate, disrupt and dismantle the large drug trafficking organizations coming into Montezuma County, the Four Corners region and the state of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"About
About 3.1 pounds of cocaine was seized. (Montezuma Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the past three years, Montezuma County and Cortez have become a \u201cregional hub of distribution\u201d for illicit drugs, Galarza said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCortez not only provides illegal narcotics for our county, but for San Juan County, New Mexico, the Farmington region, the reservation in Arizona, all the way to Utah and in Colorado, anywhere,\u201d Galarza said. \u201cWe suspect that from Montrose all the way to Pagosa Springs, and maybe even farther than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past year and a half, transnational criminal organizations have been found to be trafficking various substances, including crystal methamphetamine, into Montezuma County. Recently, crystal meth found, seized and tested in Montezuma County has been found to be 100% pure.<\/p>\n

These cartel groups are now classified as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you saw in that picture (of the drugs confiscated during the seizure) is a very small portion of that,\u201d Galarza told The Journal<\/em> on Friday. \u201cThe concerning part is that the crystal methamphetamine that we\u2019re finding is 100% pure. This is cartel dope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galarza also noted that powdered fentanyl is now coming \u201cdirectly\u201d to Cortez, and some of this powdered fentanyl is a mixture that cannot be combated by Narcan because it is mixed with xylazine, a large-animal sedative\/tranquilizer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we speak about powdered fentanyl, we\u2019re talking about a deadly narcotic that can literally kill someone in an instant,\u201d Galarza said. \u201cPeople are using the powder fentanyl containing xylazine at a level we\u2019ve never seen before. Not just here in Cortez, not just here in Colorado, but throughout the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent investigation, a narcotics team member was exposed to powdered fentanyl and taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Galarza noted that the narcotics investigation team can\u2019t keep doing its work without the help and support of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis small drug team is running at such a high pace,\u201d Galarza said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how long we can continue to do that without the help of our community and without gaining more manpower. \u2026 We need the support of the community number one, and by support, I mean they realize that we are less than a handful of investigators working at a very demanding pace. We need resources and we need manpower, but we remain vigilant and committed to combating these crimes affecting our county.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 pounds of meth, 3 pounds of cocaine and other items seized<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,969,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23632"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78205,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23632\/revisions\/78205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23632"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}