{"id":138537,"date":"2026-07-11T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-blames-budget-cuts-for-disbanding-narcotics-team-montezuma-county-disputes-claim\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:00:00","slug":"sheriff-blames-budget-cuts-for-disbanding-narcotics-team-montezuma-county-disputes-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sheriff-blames-budget-cuts-for-disbanding-narcotics-team-montezuma-county-disputes-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff blames budget cuts for disbanding narcotics team; Montezuma County disputes claim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin said budget cuts have led to the disbandment of the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team. The Board of County Commissioners disagree. Nowlin will address the board at their Tuesday, July 14 meeting at 9 a.m. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Board of County Commissioners and Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin will address the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team\u2019s disbanding at a BOCC meeting on Tuesday, July 14, with both entities having differing views on the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s budget. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. at 109 W. Main Street, Room 250.<\/p>\n

Nowlin and Detective Sgt. Victor Galarza informed The<\/em> Journal<\/em> of the Narcotics Investigation Team\u2019s disbanding, attributing the program\u2019s end to budget cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to do the large importation cases that he (Galarza) and the Cortez PD detective have done over the years,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cMy resources have been cut by the commissioners, and it\u2019s just the way that it is. I can\u2019t provide the public safety that we once did, which is really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Galarza acknowledged the disbandment.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the budget cuts \u2026 they\u2019ve cut the legs right out from underneath it (the narcotics team), and we could no longer afford to have the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Investigation Team,\u201d Galarza said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma County posted to Facebook, saying the notion that budget cuts led to the team\u2019s end are not supported by financial records. They said an article<\/a> in The Journal<\/em> about an award Galarza received from the Drug Enforcement Agency was the first notification they received that Nowlin had ended the team.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s social media post said that Nowlin has returned $4,637,197 in unspent dollars since 2015, when his tenure as sheriff started.<\/p>\n

Galarza is the sole member of the Narcotics Investigation Team from the Sheriff\u2019s Office. He said he will be leaving Cortez and seeking employment elsewhere due to the disbandment. Montezuma County\u2019s post noted that Galarza\u2019s position is funded as a full-time employee position in the 2026 budget.<\/p>\n

Nowlin was invited to both the Monday and Tuesday BOCC meetings, but will only attend Tuesday due to scheduling conflicts.<\/p>\n

The topic, however, is included in the agenda items for both days and will be discussed at the Monday meeting as well, according to BOCC Chairman Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they have spun this is not accurate at all, but I will address this on Tuesday in public, not social media,\u201d Nowlin told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> on Friday. \u201cWhat I told you about no funding is true, and I can show everyone the requests made during the budget meetings last year and what was given in the budget for this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Candelaria\"
Candelaria<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Candelaria said the allegation of funding issues was untrue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they (Nowlin and Galarza) both made the same accusation and statement that it was being disbanded due to budget cuts \u2026 it\u2019s totally inaccurate information, and they continue to tell that to the public,\u201d Candelaria told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cFrom where I sit, it\u2019s to make the board look bad. But in actuality, it\u2019s not true, and we showed that money is given back every year in its budget. So, the truth has to come out. These lies have to stop, and it\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candelaria said the sheriff can end programs when he sees fit, but that it is funded.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them to say that the position is not funded creates a lot of frustration on our side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Montezuma County\u2019s audited financials, the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s budget, including jail operations, is $7,341,485 for 2026, up from $6,990,875 in 2025 (unaudited) and $6,232,806 in 2024. In 2025, the reported unspent funds amount to $509,507.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s budget can be found online at bit.ly\/MCSObudget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

bduran@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheriff Nowlin will address commissioners on Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,969,28,60,109,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-138537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138537"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=138537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}