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Members of the Austin County Regional Special Response Team (SRT) arrested a Columbus man Dec. 15 on drug charges Michael Lee Aguilar, 44, was arrested and charged with manufacture and/or delivery of a controlled substance and has been booked into the Colorado County Jail.
On Dec. 15 at 5 a.m., members of the Austin County Regional Special Response Team (SRT) executed search and arrest warrants at a motel room located in the 2200 block of State Highway 71 in Columbus. These warrants were the result of an ongoing narcotics investigation led by the Westside Narcotics Task Force (HIDTA). The task force was investigating complaints of narcotics being sold from the location.
The Westside Narcotics Task Force covers four counties and is comprised of investigators from the Austin County Sheriff’s Office, Bellville Police Department, Sealy Police Department, Hempstead Police Department, the Waller County Sheriff’s Office, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, and the DEA.
The Westside Narcotics Task Force covers five counties and is comprised of investigators from the Austin County Sheriff’s Office, Bellville Police Department, Sealy Police Department, Hempstead Police Department, Waller County Sheriff’s Office, Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado County Sheriff’s Office, Lavaca County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Westside Narcotics Task Force was formed in 2020. Austin County Chief Deputy Matt Walls with the Austin County Sheriff’s office was with the task force when it was formed for this area.
“I have work narcotics for the past 17 years before 2020 and I worked 10 years assigned to the DEA in a HIDTA unit which stands for high intensity drug trafficking area, and it is funded by money released all over the United States through Congress,” Walls said.
Michael Lee Aguilar
Walls said back in 2013 they had to petition Congress to become a HIDTA county.
“It basically shows we have a Nexus to drug trafficking and a need for this funding that allowed us to participate in these federal programs,” Walls said.
“When I was at DEA, we worked all over the place,” Walls said. “We worked all over the United States I noticed a lot of these counties in the Metro Houston area were not HIDTA counties and I knew that being the only drug agent in the area that was hard because you’re just a one-man band. I went to them and said I really think there is a need for a multi-agency task force west of Houston where we could use highway interdiction and canine units.”
Walls said the group went to Sealy and Bellville PD, the Austin County Sheriff’s office, Hempstead PD and the Fayette County Sheriff’s office and requested them to partner with the group to get the group going in the area.
“We would be the host agency in charge of it,” Walls said of Austin County. “I had to convince DEA to come on board; it turned out to be a four-county initiative with Waller Austin Colorado and Fayette counties. We started with that in 2020, and it has grown that we now have fulltime DEA assets assigned to us. I can’t be no prouder of the guys than I am.”
