The Native American Drug and Gang Initiatived Task Force has been named a finalist by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.
NADGI was created in 2007, bringing together tribal law enforcement agencies with the state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation. to fight illegal drug and gang activities on state reservations. DOJ Special Agent Brian Kastelic is the Task Force Commander.
He says the task force works to make arrests but also educate the community...
"....it encompasses 10 tribal law enforcement agencies in the state of Wisconsin. For the most part we go by( the mission of attrition, arrest and seizures, illicit drugs, arrest of drug trafficking organizations, gang activity. But we also go into deterrence, reassurance and communication and coordination...."
Kastelic says they look for signs of problems then work for a solution...
"....the symptomology of drug abuse, paraphernalia also establishing contact numbers for them. It's not always just the criminal justice aspect it's the idea that if a family or community member can identify the signs of an individual under the duress of drug addiction or the potential involvement in criminal activities like criminal gang organizations...."
The task force was created in 2007. Since then, there have been 2,600 arrests, collected hundreds of thousands of narcotics and trained nearly 9,000 personnel.
