SLEDNET: South Shore drug task force dissolved

For the past several months there has been no official SLEDNET servicing the South Shore, and today it was announced that the drug task force that has been serving the community since 1988 has dissolved.

The South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team (SLEDNET) was once a robust group that contained team members from SLTPD, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, California Department of Justice, California Highway Patrol, El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, El Dorado County Probation Department, Alpine County Sheriff’s Department, Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, and Nevada Division of Investigation.

In 2014 several of those partners started pulling out due to staffing shortages in their respective agencies. Since 2016 the task force was reduced to just South Lake Tahoe Police Department and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.

The definition of a task force is no longer met with just two partners, so SLEDNET is officially a thing of the past.

El Dorado County will continue to provide undercover narcotics enforcement work throughout the entire county through another county-led task force which is based on the west slope.

"We have reassigned the two SLTPD task force Officers to our Detective unit where part of their duties focus on crimes related to illegal drugs within the City of South Lake Tahoe," said South Lake Tahoe Police Chief Brian Uhler. "In the event a large-scale drug investigation is necessary in the future, the SLTPD and El Dorado Sheriff are committed to pool resources to ensure we still have the capacity to do this important work."

The drug problem is not going away any time soon in South Lake Tahoe, and with a serious problem with drug abuse, crimes continue to be an issue. As in other communities, crimes related to drug use include theft, auto theft and property crimes.

SLEDNET isn't the only task force that has been eliminated. In the state of California, there are only a dozen such groups compared to 50 drug task forces in the state just a few years ago.

"The South Lake Tahoe Police Department will do its best to provide the community with some level of anti-drug crime protections," said Uhler. "We will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies, The Drug Free Coalition, area schools, Barton Hospital, and other community groups in an effort stay responsive to the needs of our community."