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PROJECT NARRATIVE Fargo-Moorhead has a population base of approximately 175,000 to 200,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It is uniquely situated on the North Dakota-Minnesota border with two major Interstate highways intersecting in Fargo. Alcohol and drug abuse is a common precursor to drug trafficking. Because of the unique location of Fargo, drug' traffickers have often taken advantage of the border to thwart law enforcement efforts to apprehend and prosecute offenders. Traffickers utilize 1-29 which is a North-South route, along with I-94's East-West route to transport drugs from larger metropolitan cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago and other source states such as, Washington, Oregon, Texas and California into North Dakota. This project will involve a multi-jurisdictional drug task force and street level police officers focusing in the Cass County area. Overtime will be used for the detection and apprehension of alcohol impaired drivers as this drug often can and does lead to more potent and illicit drug use. Many may already be involved in drug use or drug trafficking and these contacts can be a valuable source of information for our task force. The Task Force will be used to identify, apprehend and prosecute those street level offenders, to work toward developing cases on the wholesale offenders and to remove the out of state sources of supply. Assigned narcotics investigators will be responsible for the investigation of narcotics violations, exchange ofjnformation with other investigators, and briefing oflocal and Federal prosecutors of current investigative efforts as needed. Cooperation between federal and state prosecutors, as well as the HIDTA prosecutor, will be solicited. Federal Grand Juries will be used to further conspiracy investigations along with working in concert with the Federal Task Force to further these conspiracy investigations. Undercover purchases of evidence will be made.