NAMPA, Idaho — On Wednesday, Governor Brad Little signed an executive order formally establishing Operation Esto Perpetua, his crime-fighting group of leaders tasked with getting drugs off our streets and fighting human trafficking.
The executive order follows through on commitments he made in his 2024 State of the State and Budget Address.
“When I launched Operation Esto Perpetua in 2022, we knew we had our work cut out for us. Meth and fentanyl seizures have dramatically increased in Idaho and across the country," Governor Little said. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we have more work to do, particularly in addressing human trafficking.”
Executive Order 2024-04 formally establishes Operation Esto Perpetua in law and expands its focus to include human trafficking in all its forms. The executive order can be found here.
"Human trafficking is modern-day slavery," declared Governor Brad Little.
On Wednesday Governor Little not only expanded the scope of his Operation Esto Perpetua, but he signed it into law through an executive order.
Since its inception in 2022, Operation Esto Perpetua has been an ongoing effort to bring law enforcement and communities together in new ways... to better respond to the increasing presence and seizures of meth and fentanyl in Idaho.
Not only is the operation now signed into law, but it's expanding to include efforts to combat human trafficking.
"The cartels and the bad actors are taking advantage of our open borders to manipulate and abuse the most vulnerable, including children," continued Little.
Wednesday's updated order will reconvene the citizen action group to collect data about the severity of all forms of trafficking and the drug trade.
The group's recommendations will then help inform the budget, tools, and policy decisions for the program's future.
One of the things learned from the first Operation Esto Perpetua was the need for increased resources related to behavioral and mental health.
I had the opportunity to ask the governor what the future of behavioral and mental health will look like in Idaho.
"The first thing we did was aggregate all the money we're spending in the state on behavior health, and it was somewhere over a quarter billion dollars, they made recommendations on behavioral health challenges. And we're doing great work. Behavioral health council making great recommendations were getting widely supported by the legislature," added Little.
