Pubdate: Sun, 22 Jan 2006
Source: La Crosse Tribune (WI)
Copyright: 2006, The La Crosse Tribune
Contact:  http://www.lacrossetribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/229
Author: Anne Jungen, and Dan Springer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DRUG ARRESTS UP 22% AS TRAFFICKING, ENFORCEMENT INCREASE IN REGION

Each day investigators throughout the Coulee Region put themselves in
harm's way in a war many people insist cannot be won.

Sgt. Cary Joholski said he and investigator Marion Byerson, the La
Crosse Police Department's main drugs investigators, are "running all
the time," and an 11-hour day is considered a short one.

In the past few years, area agencies have reported an increasing
number of drug arrests - including an 18 percent hike in 2004 and a 22
percent rise through November 2005, said La Crosse Police Capt. Mitch
Brohmer.

One of the biggest in 2005 involved 20-year-old Anthony Rivera. Police
arrested the La Crescent, Minn., man in late December, and reported
they recovered 333 grams of cocaine from his vehicle. Investigators
say Rivera was one of several people bringing large quantities of
cocaine to the area.

"What this means is we stopped a wide distribution of cocaine coming
into La Crosse," Byerson said.

Rivera is accused of leading police on a high-speed chase through La
Crosse and Onalaska. He was charged with drug possession and intent to
deliver, as well as for the chase.

Joholski, who oversees La Crosse Police drug investigations, said the
higher arrest rates resulted from more drugs coming into the city and
a more aggressive policing approach.

La Crosse County Sheriff's Department Investigator Fritz Leinfelder
said many people don't realize how severe the drug problem is in the
county.

"When you start to tell them how bad it is, they just look at you with
disbelief," he said. "A lot of people in the La Crosse area lead a
pretty sheltered life and aren't aware of the drugs being brought into
the area."

La Crosse County Assistant District Attorney Todd Bjerke said the
county has a growing problem with a variety of drugs.

And La Crosse Police Chief Ed Kondracki said the community is trapped
in a national phenomenon - drugs migrating from from large,
metropolitan areas to less-populated locales such as La Crosse.

Within a short drive from Milwaukee, Chicago and the Twin Cities, La
Crosse is fertile ground for drug dealers who are able to buy drugs
cheap in the big city then sell them in La Crosse at a huge profit.
While a half-gram rock of crack cocaine sells for as little as $10 in
Milwaukee, it can go for up to $100 in La Crosse, Bjerke said.

Joholski said marijuana, powder cocaine and cocaine base, or crack,
are the most prevalent drugs in La Crosse. He said investigators also
stay busy with methamphetamine and Ecstasy cases.

Users and dealers

Catching drug dealers is a more effective way of dealing with the drug
trade than rounding up their customers, but Bjerke said that doesn't
mean users should be ignored.

Although critics complain courts concentrate too much on the user and
not enough on the dealer, Bjerke said, there are several reasons to
arrest and charge drug users.

When police get users to divulge where they bought their drugs,
investigators can step up surveillance on the dealer, working their
way up the distribution chain to get the biggest provider possible,
Bjerke said.

But dealing with those addicted to drugs is another way to deal with
the drug problem, Bjerke said.

"With users you want to bring charges so you can get them on something
like probation or a diversion agreement to address their problems,"
Bjerke said. "If you can address it and they quit using it, then you
have one less buyer."

Joholski said it's nearly impossible to stereotype dealers and users.
"There's no economic line you can draw to define people who use
drugs," he said.

People of all races, social and economic classes, and ages are
involved in the use and sale of illegal drugs. A criminal defense
attorney in Sparta was recently convicted of possession of crack
cocaine and placed on probation in federal court, Bjerke pointed out.

Some drug users continue to work, hiding their habits, Joholski said,
but the secret gets out as an addiction gets worse, especially for
those addicted to crack. According to Joholski, a La Crosse drug user
often spends an average of $50 to $100 on one rock of crack cocaine,
which is less than a half gram of the drug.

"And that won't last them long. Within an hour, they'll be back
again," Joholski said. "A $200- to $300-a-day habit isn't uncommon."

Since drug dealers are able to buy a rock of cocaine for as little as
$10, it's easy to see why so many dealers choose to set up shop in
communities like La Crosse, Bjerke said.

"For a lot of these guys it's all they know. They go out and sling
their stuff, but they don't use it. They provide a product, and they
don't see anything wrong with it," Bjerke said. "How do you fix that?"

According to Leinfelder, dealers in La Crosse are a combination of
local people and dealers who moved in from bigger cities such as
Milwaukee and Chicago.

Few of the dealers in the area are pulling in large amounts of money,
but there are exceptions, Bjerke noted.

Prosecutors say one suspected dealer awaiting trial had seven vehicles
- - including a Jaguar - registered in the names of seven women when he
was arrested last fall, Bjerke said.

A former La Crosse student convicted of selling large amounts of
marijuana was spending upwards of $50,000 at a time for high-grade
marijuana. He had separate homes where he lived, stored his marijuana
and kept large amounts of cash, Bjerke said.

Some dealers have become more sophisticated. It is not uncommon for
dealers to use surveillance equipment to monitor activity outside
their homes, which often have reinforced doors and alarm systems.

And it is very common for dealers to keep loaded weapons with them at
all times.

Since sentences are based on the amount of drugs found, dealers hide
larger amounts of drugs, carrying only smaller amounts when making
sales, Bjerke said.

"They'll go out on the street with five to 10 rocks. If they get
caught they'll ditch it or eat it or get rid of it, and it won't be a
major cost," Bjerke said. "If they get caught after selling most of
it, they may have one or two rocks, which is considered to be a user's
amount."

Joholski said drug deals and use happen throughout the city, though
the department responds to some areas more than others. Brohmer said
neighborhoods in the downtown, southwest side and lower North Side of
the city see the most trafficking.

Marijuana

"It's just marijuana" is what most people say to Leinfelder when he
talks about marijuana enforcement.

But marijuana, a problem for police for decades, is more potent today
than. It's more costly and poses new challenges for police, Bjerke
said.

For years, marijuana producers have worked to increase the THC level,
or the active drug component, in marijuana - to the point that even
the lowest-grade pot is more potent than the highest-quality weed sold
in the 1960s and 1970s, Bjerke said.

"Marijuana sold in the '60s would be like our beer today. The
lower-level stuff on the street today is at least double the potency
it was," Bjerke said.

The more potent the drug, the more expensive - which makes marijuana
much more profitable than it once was. And, Bjerke added, more dangerous.

Periodically police uncover a marijuana dealer bringing pot into the
area several pounds at a time. The best indication of how much
marijuana comes through the community came in 2003: Police discovered
more than 650 pounds of marijuana in a Holmen storage unit.

While police were sure the marijuana was going to be shipped out of
the area, Bjerke said, the bust showed how much pot is out there.
While there are some large suppliers, Bjerke said La Crosse doesn't
have a bottomless demand for pot.

"It can be hard to get rid of marijuana in La Crosse. Most only buy it
by the quarter ounce or eighth ounce or smaller sizes, so it can take
a long time to get rid of larger amounts of pot," Bjerke said.

The bigger busts of recent years involved suppliers bringing in
high-grade pot to sell to other dealers.

Methamphetamine

While methamphetamine production in the La Crosse area didn't reach
the epidemic levels seen in states such as Iowa and Missouri, local
investigators have dealt with their share of meth labs.

Leinfelder, who conducts training throughout the region, said
methamphetamine may be the most dangerous drug in the area. The drug
is not only extremely addictive, but its production also is dangerous.
Disposing of the toxic byproducts of "cooking" meth can create serious
problems, Leinfelder said.

Following the lead of states such as Iowa, the Wisconsin Legislature
last year made it more difficult to purchase large quantities of
pseudoephedrine, which is crucial to manufacture methamphetamine. So
far, that law appears to be helping reduce the amount of meth being
made in the area.

However, meth production has moved elsewhere, including Mexico, Bjerke
said.

"The bad part is that people are starting to run meth like marijuana
and cocaine," Bjerke said. "It's now coming from some pretty dangerous
sources ... gang-related or mafia-related sources.

"When they do bring it back, it's in a fairly larger amount because
when you have to go to that much trouble, you're going to get your
money's worth."

But finding those larger amounts coming into the area could prove
easier than trying to uncover the covert labs, Bjerke said.

Before local production started to drop, much of the meth production
was done in remote areas of what police refer to as "the Bermuda
triangle" of northern La Crosse County, and southern Trempealeau and
Jackson counties.

Taking on the problem

Drugs and dealers being as mobile as they are, law enforcement relies
on multi-jurisdictional and federal groups to help with their
investigations, Bjerke said.

One of those groups is the West Central Metropolitan Enforcement
Group, which was started in 1987 to tackle drug problems in La Crosse,
Trempealeau, Jackson, Monroe and Vernon counties.

Investigators from 17 agencies in the five counties have worked
together as necessary to investigate drug crimes.

This cooperation has spread the workload and improved the sharing of
information, increasing the number of arrests region wide, sheriff's
department Capt. Jeff Wolf said.

Kondracki said local drug dealers often are surprised to learn there
are full-time drug investigators and undercover officers working in
the area. Police also work closely with the Wisconsin Department of
Criminal Investigation and the Federal Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Bjerke said area agencies are doing all they can to stop the spread of
drugs but said the job is getting harder all the time and more needs
to be done just to keep up.

"Police don't have enough men, enough dollars and enough resources to
keep up. They're doing a good job, but they could do twice as much or
three times as much and still not get to the bottom of it," Bjerke
said.

The Drugs

# COCAINE: A police chase in Onalaska and La Crosse ended with the
confiscation of 11.7 ounces of powder cocaine and the arrest of a
20-year-old La Crescent, Minn., man.

# CRACK: Crack cocaine is highly addictive - and can be very
profitable for area drug dealers. Less than half a gram costs $10 in a
large city but can bring $100 here.

# METHAMPHETAMINE: Authorities believe Wiscon-sin's new law limiting
the sale of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine, has
cut the number of makeshift meth labs.

# MARIJUANA: Marijuana isn't what it used to be. Today's weed is much
more potent than it was in the 1960s and '70s, making the drug more
profitable and more dangerous.

# ECSTASY: While Ecstasy, a synthetic drug with psychedelic and
stimulant effects, is a problem, it ranks far behind cocaine and
marijuana on the list of confiscated drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin