RICHMOND — Virginia State Police are heading into 2018 with $1,169,546 in grant funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to aid the department’s ongoing efforts to combat the illegal manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine within the central and western regions of the commonwealth. State police are one of only six state law enforcement agencies nationwide to be awarded the COPS grant and received the second-largest amount of funding among the six agencies.

“Virginia State Police also received this grant in 2014 and, during its two-year funding cycle, doubled the amount and number of meth seizures,” officials said in a press release. “The COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program (CAMP) awarded more than $5 million to six state law enforcement agencies.”

According to the COPS press release announcing the grant recipients, “These state agencies have demonstrated numerous seizures of precursor chemicals, finished methamphetamine, laboratories, and laboratory dump seizures. State agencies will be awarded two years of funding through CAMP to support the investigation of illicit activities related to the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine.”