The Drug Task Force, created in 1991, is funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Attorney General, forfeiture funds, and minimal tax dollars.  It is comprised of county employed detectives and municipal police officers on temporary duty assignment from their police departments.  The members of the task force work throughout Lehigh County to uncover illegal drug operations and to ensure a safer environment for its citizens.  

The Lehigh County Drug Task Force investigated 259 cases in 2017 and 273 in 2018.  The number of individuals arrested in those years was 328.  In the course of their 2017 and 2018 investigations, detectives seized 30 guns and 26 vehicles. 

For both 2017 and 2018, marijuana was the primary drug seized, followed by heroin.  There were 28,088.95 grams of marijuana seized in that two-year period and 5,558.83 grams of heroin.  Other drugs seized in the period included methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, K2, and other narcotics and depressants.    Narcotics and depressants were seized in pill form, or dosage units, amounting to a total of 2,932 units.

In December 2014, Capital BlueCross and the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association (PDAA) announced an initiative to enable municipal police departments in Capital BlueCross county service areas to purchase and carry Naloxone. The prescription drug can help to save the life of a person who has overdosed on prescription pain killers or heroin. 

Since that time, all police departments in Lehigh County have been trained in the use of the drug and received supplies of it thanks to Capital BlueCross, which had provided funding for police departments to buy doses of the drug. The PDAA administers the program.  Locally, the Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust provided funding for Naloxone kits to be provided to police departments.