Hopkins County and Sulphur Springs are well and widely known for decades for their drug interdiction efforts, particularly on Interstate 30. What some may not know, or remember, is who started the local movement.
“I can cover that with one name — Bruce Roberts,” said Sulphur Springs Police Lt. Cleve Williams, a narcotics interdiction officer for 13 years who often worked with Roberts policing narcotics activity on Interstate 30, with many successful results. “He is truly known as the ‘Godfather of Drug Interdiction’ to the law enforcement community of Hopkins County. He started it all. I credit a lot of my success to him. He was one of my mentors. We owe a lot to him.”
Roberts career path didn’t start with interdiction, however.
Roberts is a Sulphur Springs native and graduated from high school here. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Abilene Christian University, he went to work for Texas Department of Public Safety as a driver’s license trooper in 1974. He was fortunate enough to be able in 1981 to transfer back to Sulphur Springs as a commercial motor vehicle trooper.
After working in Sulphur Springs for a while, Roberts met Trooper Barry Washington, who was known in the law enforcement community across the state for making large drug and currency seizures from traffic stops. Roberts told Washington he was interested in applying some of his techniques along the I-30 corridor and asked for tips.
“This turned out to be the beginning of what made Bruce one of the most successful law enforcement officers that Hopkins County would ever see,” Williams noted.
After several years, Roberts’ success in “taking the fight to the drug underworld” gained him notice as an interdiction officer as well. In 1996, he was introduced to state Trooper Todd Brockhahn, who transferred to the highway patrol division in Sulphur Springs.
“After a few months of working together, Bruce and Todd had developed a real friendship and had become dependent on one another in their drug interdiction efforts, which would bring them to one of their highlights of their careers,” Williams notes.
It also set both on a course that would shape the rest of their lives and affirm their positions as interdiction officers, and lead to the bust of a Mexican-headquartered trafficking syndicate.
What started as two routine traffic stops with within 10 days in 1996 ultimately started the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Operation Reciprocity.
Roberts and Brackhahn first stopped a van with New York license plates and $2.2 million in U.S. currency. About 10 days later, also on I-30, they stopped a semi truck-tractor trailer concealing 2,700 pounds of marijuana.
The seizures were a major key that later began DEA Operation Reciprocity, which targeted two alleged trafficking cells that controlled the Amado Carillo-Fuentes Organization (ACFO).
ACFO was identified to officers as a high-level trafficking syndicate headquartered in Mexico that illustrated how drug traffickers from Mexico were assuming a dominant role in cocaine distribution within the United States, delivering drugs to the East Coast, particularly New York City, an area previously dominated by Columbian and Nigerian traffickers, according to the DEA website. Operation Reciprocity, along with another operation, Limelight, exposed ACFO groups from Mexico to Chicago, Michigan, Tucson and other areas of the U.S.
A warehouse raided by Tucson police and drug task force on Dec. 3, 1996, netted 5.3 tons of cocaine. When Roberts and Brockhahn seized the 2,700 pounds of pot in the northbound tractor trailer, it was found to be linked to the previous cash seizure, the cocaine warehouse in Tucson and ongoing investigations in Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan and New York, according to the DEA (www.justice.gove/dea/major/reclime).
In February 1997, the 20 law enforcement agencies working the cases got together through the DEA, and signed an agreement to cooperate and exchange information, hence the operation’s “Reciprocity” name.
Both Operation Reciprocity and Limelight ended in August 1997. Reciprocity netted 40 arrests, another 2,700 pounds of marijuana seized along with 7.4 tons of cocaine and another $11 million in currency.
The operation’s success earned Roberts and Brockhahn the Directors Citation from Texas Department of Public Safety, and an award of excellence from the DEA that was presented by Janet Reno in Washington, D.C.
Brackhahn later moved to another related position, but Roberts continued to make a dent in interstate drug trafficking, with hundreds of additional seizures.
Roberts’ successes in the field have resulted in him being recruited by several federal and state law enforcement agencies to teach drug interdiction classes. He’s taught classes all over the U.S. and in Canada. His efforts also helped lay the path for other agencies to develop drug interdiction efforts along I-30 from Texarkana to Greenville.
Roberts retired once, but soon returned to DPS as a trooper, which has enabled him to extend his interdiction efforts.
Despite his many interdiction efforts and seizures, including big efforts such as Operation Reciprocity, his dedication has always been to fighting the war on drugs at home.
“I once asked Bruce what he considered to be the highlight of his career and after pausing for a moment, he responded, ‘disrupting the lives of dopers and removing criminals from our community in Hopkins County,’” Williams said.
Roberts efforts to date have resulted in the seizure of $5 million in currency, 5,000 pounds of marijuana, 100 pounds of cocaine and 15 pounds of methamphetamine.
The interdiction trooper retired again from DPS effective this month, and is currently working with an oil field service in Midland, which takes him all over the Permian Basin. Roberts is in charge of safety for the service. He still has a home and family in Hopkins County, which he returns to as often as possible.
“Bruce has always been a mentor to me, but most importantly, he has become one of the best friends I have ever known,” Williams notes. “Bruce has now retired from the Texas Department of Public Safety and will be truly missed by all.”
Except the drug dealers.
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