DRUG ARREST PACE ZOOMS IN SUBURBS

Trafficking Not Just An Urban Problem

A man and woman seeking to score cocaine meet with an alleged supplier
outside the Pieces of Eight restaurant on Milwaukee's lakefront. The deal
sours. A double homicide ensues.

A typical scene from the urban drug trade? Not quite. All the players are
suburbanites.

With jurisdictional lines continuing to blur in an increasingly mobile
society, local, state and federal officials are making some of the biggest
drug seizures in their histories. And they say any notion that the drug
trade is just a big-city problem is simply wrong.

The Pieces of Eight shooting victims, Michael Dock and Jodi Nehmer, were
from Greendale and West Allis, respectively. The suspect is from West Bend.

In sheer numbers, marijuana remains the biggest drug problem for the
four-county area, although in Milwaukee, cocaine is a close second. But
heroin and Ecstasy cases are rising in suburban areas as well as in the
city. And crack cocaine, a drug often associated with gritty urban images,
is increasingly moving into suburbia, in some counties outpacing seizures
of powder cocaine.

"Drug trafficking at all levels, from the user to the small-time dealer to
the large-scale distributor, is both a city and suburban and statewide
problem," said Thomas P. Schneider, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District
of Wisconsin. "There's a myth that drugs is a big-city problem."

An analysis of state drug arrests from 1990 through 1999, the latest data
available, shows that drug arrests grew at a much higher rate in Waukesha,
Ozaukee and Washington counties than in Milwaukee County or the city of
Milwaukee.

In 1990, West Allis alone posted higher drug arrest numbers than Ozaukee
and Washington counties combined. But West Allis has seen a dramatic
decline ever since. Milwaukee County and city drug arrests also dropped
from 1998 to 1999.

But suburban counties showed continued increases. Population changes are
responsible in part, but the percentage increases in the suburbs outpaced
their population gains.

The drug problem in Milwaukee still dwarfs that of the suburbs. In 1999,
Milwaukee police arrested about 1,000 more drug offenders than the
Milwaukee County suburbs and the three neighboring counties combined. That
same year, Milwaukee police made three times as many drug sale arrests as
those suburban communities combined.

Still, there is growing concern among suburban officials.

Rise Of Ecstasy

Like their city counterparts, suburban drug officers now are seizing record
numbers of the hallucinogenic drug Ecstasy. Known as a "rave drug," Ecstasy
was linked to three deaths in Wisconsin in the past six months, one in Dane
County and two in northern Wisconsin. The Waukesha County drug unit took
713 Ecstasy tablets off the streets in 2000, up from 265 in 1999. Milwaukee
County's drug unit seized 144 doses last year.

"It seems to be popular with the younger crowd. That seems to be the big
thing going now," said Lt. Dave LaFond, head of operations for the Waukesha
County Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit. "They really don't know what
they're getting. I've seen everything from rat poison to all sorts of stuff
mixed in."

A particularly potent form of heroin - which caused a record number of
deaths in Milwaukee County last year - also is slowly infiltrating the suburbs.

In West Allis, there have been five heroin-related overdoses already this
year. And Waukesha County has reported two recent heroin-related deaths.

Crack Comes To Suburbs

But the appearance of crack in the suburbs is perhaps the most striking
difference from five years ago, smashing the most entrenched stereotypes.

Ozaukee County's Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit seized seven times as
much crack cocaine in 2000 as the year before. Washington County drug
officers also saw a rise in crack.

Waukesha County's drug unit seized three times as much, with twice as much
seized as the year before in the area's largest jurisdiction, the city of
Waukesha.

When dealing with crime statistics, it's always possible that more
aggressive enforcement is the reason for a spike in arrests. But those who
work the streets say crack is becoming more prevalent in the suburbs.

"We used to run into more powder cocaine than crack, but now it's flipped
around," Lt. Dean Roberts of the Ozaukee County drug unit said. "The
stereotype is of people sitting around a corner in the inner city smoking
crack and people in the suburbs having $100 bills and snorting powder
cocaine. But that's really not true."

The Ozaukee County drug unit seized 1,240 grams of crack last year compared
with 69 grams of powder cocaine. In 1999, the unit seized 185 grams of crack.

The state Department of Justice took almost three times as much crack off
Wisconsin streets last year as it did in 1999, 1,357 grams compared with 550.

"It used to be that it (crack cocaine outside Milwaukee) was rare," said
Robert Sloey, director of operations for the Wisconsin Division of
Narcotics Enforcement.

"The amount of crack we have seized in our Milwaukee office has leveled
off, but now all of our other regional offices are working more crack
cases," Sloey said.

Suburban Crack Addicts

And those familiar with drug trends say the suburban addiction problem is
larger than suburban arrest figures indicate because suburbanites often
come into Milwaukee to get their fix.

"It is very common to find suburban crack addicts," said Capt. David Cysz
of the Milwaukee County Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit. "The person
dealing crack cocaine on say 9th and North (in Milwaukee) could have
customers all around the five-county area coming in."

Scott Martin, who runs Hope Street, a Milwaukee faith-based program for
recovering drug addicts, has no illusion that suburbanites are immune to
crack cocaine addiction. Martin, a recovered crack addict, said, "If you
were sitting in a (Milwaukee) crack house, half the people coming in at any
given time were from the suburbs."

Whites represented 73% of the state's drug arrests in 1999, up from 66% the
year before, the latest numbers available. Meanwhile the percentage of drug
arrests blacks represented declined. Milwaukee County's proportion of the
state's total drug arrests dropped, from 33.1% in 1998 to 27.4% in 1999.

Bill Roach, who prosecutes drug cases in Waukesha County, said: "There
really hasn't been an area in Waukesha County where we haven't had some
activity in the metro drug unit or other law enforcement involving drugs.
Even if the offense is not directly drug-related, more often than not, I
find there's often a drug connection to the offense."

City Often The Source

The suburban increase aside, the manner in which drugs are distributed in
the state more often than not leads back to one place: Milwaukee.

"Milwaukee is the drug hub for three-fourths of the state," Sloey said.

The drugs - whether destined for city or suburban users - often are traced
back to the same "source" cities, most frequently in the nation's border
states.

The state's 2000-2002 Anti-Drug Abuse Strategy report says that drugs
reaching Wisconsin are often filtered through dealers operating in
Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota and that "drugs being sold in the smaller
rural and suburban communities originate in Minneapolis/St. Paul,
Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago.

City of Waukesha police Sgt. Jeff Fulwiler said dealers from Chicago and
Milwaukee used to "set up a branch bank out here. That's gone."

With the redevelopment of Waukesha's downtown and the elimination of
several rooming houses, police said, it's getting tougher to track the
open-air deals. But, Fulwiler noted, "The reality of it is you can buy
dope. You can always buy dope."

Law enforcement officials also say there is a difference in how drugs are
dealt in Milwaukee and in the suburbs.

"Typically, the drug transactions in the city (of Milwaukee) are done in
drug houses or street corners, and there is a lot of foot traffic and
criminal activity," said Milwaukee County Deputy District Attorney Pat
Kenney, who ran that county's drug unit from 1990 to 1999.

"In the suburbs, the drug sales tend to be private, between people who
frequently know each other, attend the same school, are members of the same
club or are patrons of the same bar."