By KRWG News
New Mexico – New Mexico Tech says it's expanding its law enforcement education program to include a new initiative for officers stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The university won a competitive grant for $994,000 from the Department of Justice to educate non-federal law enforcement officers in New Mexico and Arizona to combat drug trafficking and related violence in border areas.
The associate director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, Dave Williams, says the initiative will train state, local and tribal police officers to deal with the threats posed by Mexican cartels involved in cross-border drug trade.
Williams says these are the officers that are on the front lines in the war on drug trafficking.
The new program calls for hiring seven full-time employees and 99 part-time workers.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.