Law enforcement training and awards banquet at the Golden Nugget Biloxi

The Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and Homeland Security Investigations Gulfport hosted their annual awards presentation at the Golden Nugget Casino and Resort.

The two-day training and awards ceremony is an opportunity to recognize the collaborative efforts and successful work of these law enforcement partnerships in combating drug trafficking in the southeast.

At the ceremony, Homeland Security Investigators recognized narcotics interdiction efforts.

The Blue Lighting Operation Center in Gulfport is a homeland security program, which partners with the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area as an intelligence and information sharing initiative. HSI Special Agent David Denton said, “The Blue Lightning Operation Center is an intel center that helps to provide intelligence to officers who are stopping cars on the highways. They might need to know that this person has a criminal history or that this particular type of car was used and a different type of crime or that these concealment methods might be used and so it gives the officers on the street a lot more information to deal with on vehicle stops that they are making.”

Along with the awards ceremony, multiple presentations took place.