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Sheriff tells supervisors reactivated gang and drug task forces made large seizures and arrests
Summary
Kern County Sheriff Donnie Youngblood reported that reestablishing the gang task force and HIDA unit produce hundreds of arrests and multi‑thousand‑pound drug seizures over an 18‑month period; the board voted to receive and file the presentation.
Sheriff Donnie Youngblood briefed the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 7 about 18 months of enforcement activity since the county reestablished its gang task force and beefed up the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDA) unit.
"The gang task force was reengaged in May 2024," the sheriff said, and over the past 18 months the county has arrested "more than 300 gang members," seized 186 firearms, $285,000 in cash, 81.5 pounds of methamphetamine, 24 pounds of fentanyl, 61.9 pounds of marijuana and 500 fentanyl M30 pills (as reported to the board). The combined work of the gang unit and HIDA was reported to have seized thousands of pounds of controlled substances and hundreds of thousands of plants and edibles during the period presented to the board.
The sheriff described a separate set of HIDA results attributed to multi‑agency operations that included federal partners such as the DEA, U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigators, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the National Guard Counterdrug Task Force. He said HIDA operations yielded 3xx arrests, multiple dismantled meth labs, and hundreds of firearms seized (figures presented on the dais).
Board members praised the task forces and asked about staffing and funding. Sheriff Youngblood said the gang unit had approximately 10 officers assigned with roughly four vacant positions remaining; funding for the work includes a mix of federal, state and county general funds. Supervisor Couch asked whether the units were fully staffed; the sheriff said they were not yet at full strength and additional hires would likely increase seizures.
Supervisor Jeff Flores moved to receive and file the sheriff's presentation; the motion passed unanimously. The board recorded the action as "receive and file." The sheriff emphasized that the figures he provided were the department's operational results and did not represent an independent audit.
Provenance: Sheriff's presentation begins at SEG 2860 and the board vote to receive and file is recorded at SEG 3148–3151.
