Small town police on front lines of cartels' drug war costing Americans their lives

A small city in Alabama has become a "hot spot" for drugs, and police are determined to take back their community.

"These men and women, the vast majority of them grew up there," Lou Valoze, a retired agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), told Fox News Digital.

"These are residents who are fighting this war to protect their community, the community that they live in, that their kids are growing up in, that their friends are in," Valoze shared. "This is very personal to them. What they’re doing is probably the most dangerous and difficult aspect of law enforcement, which is undercover work, because it is the most effective tool in combating illegal drugs, illegal guns and human trafficking."

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Lou Valoze, right, talks with Sgt. Garett Pesnell of the Oxford Police Department. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

Valoze is leading a new series on Investigation Discovery (ID) titled "Operation Undercover." The show takes viewers "inside real-life discreet operations run by police to keep communities across the country safe." It features exclusive footage of undercover stings targeting arms dealers, drug suppliers and human traffickers, among others.

The first episode, which premieres Nov. 12, focuses on Oxford, Alabama, a town located right off Highway 20, which runs from Atlanta to Birmingham. The area has been eyed by investigators due to its high activity of fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin. According to the episode, it has become the primary drug of choice for smugglers.

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The Oxford Police Department is preparing to execute a bust and search warrant. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"It is being produced and made at these super labs… that are mostly in Mexico and being brought over to the border," Valoze explained. "It’s very cheap to make, and you can make large quantities of it. It is so potent. You only need a little bit for the desired results. They can get it out there, whether it’s pure fentanyl or mixed with other drugs, and make it available everywhere – and make it very cheap."

The Oxford Police Department seized evidence from a bust and search warrant. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"You have that combination of availability and affordability – that is why it is spreading the way it’s spreading, and we’re seeing deaths every day, unfortunately," Valoze added.

Fentanyl and other lab-produced synthetic opioids are driving an overdose crisis deadlier than any the U.S. has ever seen. In 2021, overdoses from all drugs claimed more than 100,000 lives for the first time, and the deaths in 2022 remained at nearly the same level — more than gun and auto deaths combined.

Lou Valoze initially pursued a banking career. However, his encounter with an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent inspired him to join the Department of Justice, leading to a 25-year tenure as an undercover agent. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

The federal government counted more accidental overdose deaths in 2021 alone than it did in the 20-year period from 1979 through 1998. Overdoses in recent years have been many times more frequent than they were during the black tar heroin epidemic that led former President Richard Nixon to launch his "War on Drugs" or during the cocaine crisis in the 1980s.

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A photo of Makayla Cox, who died of a fentanyl overdose at age 16, is displayed among other portraits on "The Faces of Fentanyl" wall, which displays photos of Americans who died from a fentanyl overdose, at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13, 2022. (AGNES BUN/AFP via Getty Images)

Experts believe deaths surged not only because the drugs are so powerful, but also because fentanyl is laced into so many other illicit drugs.

Still, advocates have warned that some of the alarms being sounded by politicians and officials are wrong and potentially dangerous. 

Lou Valoze praised the Oxford Police Department for their "impressive" efforts in combating drugs in their town. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

Among those ideas include that tightening control of the U.S.-Mexico border would stop the flow of drugs, though experts say the key to reining in the crisis is reducing drug demand; that fentanyl might turn up in kids’ trick-or-treat baskets on Halloween; and that merely touching the drug briefly can be fatal — something that researchers found untrue. 

Lou Valoze talks with members of the Oxford Police Department. With a 25-year career as an undercover agent, Valoze has faced the Chicago mob, outlaw biker gangs and domestic terrorists. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

Advocates have expressed concern that this information could cause first responders to hesitate about giving lifesaving treatment.

The premiere episode of "Operation Undercover" details the connection between Mexico and Oxford specifically.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has warned that fentanyl is being sold in multicolored pills and powders — sometimes referred to as "rainbow fentanyl" — marketed on social media to teens and young adults. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"It’s the same connection as in almost every small town in the country," said Valoze. "The cartels are very businesslike. They run their organizations the same way a Fortune 500 company runs their organizations. They have major distribution points in the southeast."

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A 2022 report from a bipartisan federal commission found that fentanyl and similar drugs are being made mostly in labs in Mexico from chemicals shipped primarily from China. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"Atlanta is a major distributing point," he shared. "Obviously, Miami is a major distribution point. And what they do is they create territories for their distribution. It goes down like any business."

Valoze said drug dealers are likely to develop "territories" in cities connected to major highways for quicker accessibility. Oxford, he noted, is "pretty much right in the middle" of Highway 20.

According to "Operation Undercover," drug dealers have eyed Oxford, Alabama, due to its accessibility to Highway 20. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"The police are doing everything they can through highway interdiction, but it’s not enough," he said. "[But] the Oxford Police Department has become proactive. A lot of the drug activity and a lot of the… sex trafficking is happening at… the hotels that are right off the highway. 

Oxford Police Department and Lou Valoze at the scene of a bust and search warrant. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"They are proactively going out there using informants, using undercover officers to combat this problem, and they’re having amazing results."

During filming, Valoze said he was impressed with how the Oxford Police Department had been successfully conducting its investigations.

Lou Valoze, left, talks with Sgt. Garett Pesnell of the Oxford Police Department. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"I’m coming from a federal background where we have a lot of resources," he said. "A lot of times when you go to a smaller city, they don’t have the same resources… but they were conducting themselves the same way that we as feds conduct ourselves.

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Across the country, fentanyl is being laced into drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, sometimes with deadly results. In some cases, it is mixed in Mexico or the U.S. with other substances and pressed into pills meant to look like other drugs. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"… They do their homework through intelligence gathering and surveillance. They knew exactly who they were going against, and they were working with other departments in that area, task forces. By the time they send an agent or an undercover officer into a dangerous situation to make a deal, the deck is stacked in their favor."

Police in small U.S. communities are combating deadly drugs shipped over the border. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"They spent their weeks surveilling these people… knowing where they sleep, knowing what their habits were, knowing what they do," Valoze continued. "That makes it as safe as possible to do an undercover deal when you have all that intelligence… And then on the backside of it, when it was time to take these people down, their preparation was just phenomenal. Their SWAT teams, the intelligence and the surveillance they did before they executed these warrants was so impressive to me."

A misconception the public has about undercover investigations, Valoze stressed, is that it is "unfair to one side."

Lou Valoze, center, meets with Capt. Josh Miller and Sgt. Brad Young, left, of the Oxford Police Department. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"The reality of the situation is that people are dying," he said. "Whether it is a fentanyl overdose, a heroin overdose, gun violence, or human slavery through human trafficking and sex trafficking, people are getting hurt… The purpose of these undercover investigations is to save lives and make the community safer."

Lou Valoze, left, meets with Capt. Josh Miller of the Oxford Police Department. (Courtesy of Investigation Discovery)

"There’s no fame or fortune involved in this," Valoze reflected. "There are not a lot of accolades. These are undercover officers, men and women, doing all of this to make the community safer. 

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"I think when you watch ‘Operation Undercover,’ you’re going to appreciate what they do and why they do it. You’ll get a true understanding of why these undercover operations are essential to keep communities safe."