CNMI to get $456K for drug control program
The CNMI government stands to receive $456,446 in federal grants for its drug control programs.
Doris C. Pladevega, executive director of the NMI Criminal Justice Planning Agency, said the grant would be awarded to the Commonwealth under the 2004 Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The CNMI started receiving the Byrne grant in1987, Pladevega told Gov. Juan N. Babauta in a letter.
“[The] purpose [of the grant] is to assist states and local units of government with special emphasis on controlling violent and drug-related crime and serious offenders, and fostering multi-jurisdictional and multi-state efforts to support national drug-control priorities,” she said.
The main recipient of the funds is the Drug Enforcement Task Force, which gets about half of the CNMI’s Byrne grant funds.
The task force is composed of representatives from the Department of Public Safety, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Department of Finance’s Division of Customs Services.
Earlier, Domingo S. Herraiz, director of the Washington-based Bureau of Justice Assistance, told Pladevega that the grant award is subject to certain special conditions
The award requires that the CNMI allocate not less than 5 percent of the total award for programs that would improve the quality of criminal justice records within the Commonwealth.
The special conditions also include a whole set of requirements relating to identification, seizure, or closure of clandestine methamphetamine, or ice, laboratories.
Further, the government must comply with, among others, all reporting, data collection and evaluation requirements set by the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
