Federal funding to help drug crackdown efforts in Appalachia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Drug crackdown efforts in West Virginia and three other states will receive a federal funding boost of nearly $400,000.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia says the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy made the funding available to the Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area for initiatives in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

It’s part of $13.4 million in funding announced for five regional HIDTA programs in the eastern half of the country.

Office of National Drug Control Policy director Michael Botticelli says $2.5 million of the funding is for the five regional programs to address the heroin trafficking threat through public health and safety partnerships across 15 states.

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