JENNINGS, La. (KLFY)- Interstate 10 stretches from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. It also runs right through the center of Acadiana.

But according to officials, the long stretch of road is being used for more than just tourist and business travel.

A ‘drug corridor’ is how many law enforcement agencies are referring to the interstate.

Jennings Police Chief, Danny Semmes, says the drug trafficking along I-10 is affecting cities here in Acadiana and it has been for a long time.

“For at least the past 30-35 years, that I know of, Interstate 10 has been a main drug corridor between Houston and New Orleans and Houston and the East Coast.”

Following the arrest of a Florida man who was traveling through I-10 with three pounds of marijuana and a couple of ecstasy tablets, Semmes says it shows exactly how the corridor works.

“Although the amount that we found in the vehicle was not a large amount, it’s indicative of the overall amount of drugs that flow through Louisiana and through the southern part of the country on the I-10 corridor,” Semmes said.

He says, a lot of times, those arrests on the interstate do take a larger amount of drugs off the streets. “Like the 26 [pounds] of synthetic [marijuana] that was stopped in Broussard. Those drugs obviously came from I-10 as well, and came right through Jennings, Louisiana.”

Semmes tells News 10, most drug arrests they see in the city and surrounding areas involve drugs from big cities connected to Acadiana through I-10. “The drugs that we get here in Jennings, we know that the majority of them come in from carriers from the Houston, Texas area.”

But he says the Jennings officers asre working to put a stop to it. “Our department, if we can get just a small portion of it, we’re going to do our part, nationwide, to help control the flow of drugs.”

Semmes tells us his department has officers on I-10 every day– nearly round the clock– to fight the drug trafficking.