Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force (LSVOTF)
The Lake Superior Violent Offender Task Force (LSVOTF) is a large multiagency and cooperative effort that serves all of Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin. The LSVOTF consists of members from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office; the Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia and Superior Police Departments; Bureau of Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), MN National Guard Counter Drug Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The task force focuses on investigating violent crime within the members’ respective jurisdictions, seizing illegal firearms, fugitive apprehension and comprehensive enforcement of controlled substance laws. Funding for the LSVOTF is primarily through a Violent Crime Enforcement Team (VCET) grant from the State of Minnesota, Office of Justice Programs, a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Anti-Heroin grant and a Federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) grant.