Ongoing efforts by the City of Albuquerque to address crime along the city’s Central Avenue corridor – where a large number of homeless congregate – are making a difference.
The International District (formerly known as ‘The War Zone’), is an area in SE Albuquerque, including a large portion of Central Avenue, and has been the focus of an effort since February 17, 2025 to reduce crime pursuant to Albuquerque’s joint law enforcement operation known as Operation Route 66.
According to reporting last month by KRQE News 13 (Albuquerque, NM), Operation Route 66 is focusing on an area located along East Central Avenue, and Louisiana and Wyoming Boulevards, where open drug use and other crime continues to be problematic. The multi-agency operation includes the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney, and the New Mexico State Police.
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman says that law enforcement is tracking down violent offenders and taking guns and drugs, such as fentanyl, off the streets.
“[Law enforcement’s] job is quite simply to arrest and prosecute all people committing crime in the International District. If you smoke fentanyl, you will go to jail. If you don’t show up for court, you’ll be picked up on your warrant and brought back to jail. If you commit crime, you will be held accountable.” – Sam Bregman
The KRQE News 13 article may be read HERE.
KOB 4 News (Albuquerque, NM) reported yesterday (3/26/2025) that Operation Route 66, which is now in its sixth week, has resulted in more than 300 arrests, with local business PB&J’s Site Manager, Stacy Carrasco, saying that persons who live and work in the International District are noticing (positive) changes.
Carrasco said that the unsheltered disposed needles or feces and clothes on the ground, stole the company’s security cameras and stole our kids’ bicycles – with the business having to clean up the area each morning. But, in the last few weeks, she’s noticed that things are starting to improve.
The KOB 4 News article may be read HERE.
More than 300 persons have been arrested pursuant to Operation Route 66 during the last five weeks, with 200 of those arrested having active warrants. Those arrested have been charged with offenses ranging from probation violations, drug possession, rape and even murder.
My brothers and sisters, there is nothing simple about addressing the scourge of homelessness, drug use and sales, and crime in our cities, and Albuquerque is no exception. Pray! Please pray especially for those at risk and living on the streets! With God, all things are possible!
It is so very important to remember that every single person currently unhoused or suffering from an illness, be it a drug addition, physical illness or mental health issues, was made in the image and likeness of God, who knew every one of us before we were ever formed in our mother’s wombs, and who has a marvelous plan for our lives! God loves and desires the very best for every single one of us – homeless, addicted or not.
Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV)
“Then God said, ‘[l]et Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank [Y]ou for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in [Y]our book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”.
Jeremiah 29:11-12 (NKJV)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope [emphasis mine]. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”
Let’s also remember that according to the Bible, the Father loves you, me and every single person living on the streets just like He loves Jesus!
John 17:20-23 (NKJV)
Jesus Prays to the Father – The Father Loves Us Just Like He Loves Jesus
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me [emphasis mine].”
