UNSEEN DANGERS ARE STILL THERE

FARMINGTON - For police, it was a familiar story of desperation, only
this time the participants were from out of town. Officers arrested a
Terryville woman July 23 in connection with a June 20 burglary that
took place in broad daylight at the historic Sanford & Hawley
building supply store on Route 4. Police said three individuals
walked in while the store was open and made off with $600 worth of
copper flashing.

An arrest warrant states they sold the merchandise to a scrap metal
business for a percentage of its value. Police said their intent was
simple - they stole and traded the copper for money to buy heroin.
Four weeks ago, police said a former resident walked into a Route 4
gas station wearing a friend's shirt over his head while brandishing
a knife. He wanted money.

It didn't matter that he knew the clerk and would be easily
recognized. It also didn't matter that his court case for his arrest
for shooting up heroin with two others in the Unionville McDonalds
was still pending. Less than a month earlier an East Farms resident
died from a heroin overdose alone in a local park. About three weeks
before his death, he was arrested by University of Connecticut Health
Center police for carting an expensive piece of equipment out of the
facility's library - presumably to pawn to get high. That same week,
he was also arrested by Farmington and West Hartford police for
possession of heroin. In nearly every case, the same suspects have
been arrested over and over again by Farmington police for both
possession of heroin and for burglaries or thefts - even from their
own families. It's a small group It's not an epidemic - one
Farmington parent estimates that his son hung out with about 30 area
kids who all used heroin before his death - but it is a phenomenon
that most Farmington Valley residents don't expect. "I don't think
it's widespread; marijuana use is probably a lot more prevalent, but
the thing is, in a town like this, you don't have drug dealers on
every corner," said Farmington Police Chief James Rio. "We don't have
slums, so people aren't necessarily aware it's a problem.

We know they go to Hartford to get it and we know our officers are
aggressive with arrests." Rio said his department made 92
possession-of-narcotics arrests from July 2004 to June 30 of this
year. To be considered a narcotics arrest, the suspect must be in
possession of heroin or cocaine. Arrests for other types of drug
possession are far more common.

During the same period, Farmington police made 175 arrests for
possession of a controlled substance or possession of less than four
ounces of marijuana.

A controlled drug is defined by federal and state laws as a substance
that induces stimulant or depressant effects and has a potential to
become addictive.

Farmington police also made nine arrests for possession of a
hallucinogenic or more than four ounces of marijuana. Rio said many
of the arrests are out-of-towners traveling through, but he
acknowledged that many were repeat offenders who live in town and who
are perpetrating other crimes. While Avon and Canton police report
they haven't seen much heroin drug activity in recent years, other
area departments said they are seeing the same pattern of crime in
their towns. Burlington and Simsbury police admit they regularly deal
with the crimes associated with heroin use including burglaries,
overdoses, and occasional operation of a drug factory that draws
customers from several towns. Heroin use leads to other crimes And
many of the crimes are limited to a small core of individuals ages 19
to 23 who are hooked on heroin and stealing to support their habit.
"I think the problem is a lot greater than the average person
realizes," said Burlington State Trooper Ray Buthe. "I wouldn't call
it an epidemic, but for the kids who are involved, it's such a serious matter.

This drug is a poison and it can kill you the first time you use and
it can kill you anytime you use it. It slows the heart rate and breathing.

Every time you do it, you don't know if you're going to die." Buthe
said like Farmington, Burlington has a small group of kids that use
heroin and commit burglaries to buy drugs. "We can trace just about
all of our daytime burglaries to drugs and the worst is heroin,"
Buthe said. "Even if we don't make an arrest, we usually conclude
this is who likely did it and if I look back over the statistics,
it's almost always connected to heroin." Farmington resident Mark
Luebeck, who lost his 22-year-old son Chris to a heroin overdose on
May 31, admits he and his wife had discovered gold and silver coins
missing from their home in the weeks before their son's death.

At the time of his death, Chris Luebeck had several possession,
burglary and larceny charges pending. Buthe said it's not uncommon
for him to receive reports three or four times a year that an entire
neighborhood had vehicle break-ins during the overnight hours. "It's
always cars that were left unlocked and they always take one thing -
the spare change left between the seats," Buthe said. "If you can hit
10 cars and get about $5 a car, that's enough for one day's high."
Buthe also said that daytime burglaries are popular with heroin
addicts, but they tend to take only items that won't be a hassle to
pawn. "Cash definitely, a bit of jewelry, even those jars of change
your kids keep in their room," Buthe said. Cost-effective Treatment
specialists attribute the popularity of heroin in the suburbs to the
cost. "Usually the first drug of abuse is a prescription drug, but
then the cost quickly becomes unmanageable," said Paul McLaughlin,
executive director of the Hartford Dispensary, the largest drug
rehabilitation program run by the state. "You can be addicted to
Oxycontin and dish out $300 to $400 a day or you can use heroin at
$50 to $70 a day," McLaughlin explained. "Most addicts are socially
intelligent, they know heroin is more affordable." Buthe said the low
cost and a steady supply of heroin have only made the drug more
accessible to suburban kids and adults. Drug raids help Simsbury and
Farmington police have both made highly publicized drug busts in the
past seven months.

Simsbury police said one drug operation sprung up at the Iron Horse
Inn in early March. By the time two area SWAT teams raided the
operation in April, the police found two men selling several
different types of drugs including heroin, cocaine and prescription
medications out of three hotel rooms at the Inn. Simsbury police also
said they discovered during the course of the investigation that the
patrons of the drug factory included residents of Unionville, Avon,
New Hartford, Simsbury and Granby. "It was people from all kinds of
economic backgrounds," said Simsbury police officer Nick Boyoulter.
"It's an issue everywhere, not just here, but out of state as well."
Farmington police busted a Lake Garda couple in December after
neighbors reported suspicious activity taking place at the house.

A police warrant indicates that the couple was purchasing as much as
1,500 one-hit bags of heroin a week from a Hartford drug dealer,
which they would in turn sell to customers in Farmington for $10 a
bag. A warrant for the couple's arrest said that during the course of
the investigation, local kids who were purchasing from the couple
were also ratting them out to police, presumably in exchange for
leniency as they themselves were being arrested for possession of
heroin charges. "We've had one kid who has overdosed three times.

The best we can do is make people aware it's out there," Rio said.