Dane County Drug Unit Wins State Award

A low-profile team of drug police in Madison is getting some extra attention.

Bolstered by record seizures of heroin and illegal pills -- plus the
rare interception of opium-soaked wood chips from Laos -- the Dane
County Narcotics and Gang Task Force has been named Wisconsin's top
Drug Unit of the Year.

Believing anonymity helps them do their jobs better and more safely,
members of such drug units are cautious about identifying themselves
and revealing many details about how cases are solved.

Citing security concerns, the team's leader, Madison police Lt. Sandy
Theune won't even say where her regular office in Madison is.

But she isn't shy about her conviction that drug-related problems in
Dane County deserve more public attention. "I find in conversations
with people that they actually prefer not knowing about the drug
problems in our community," she said. "Many citizens are quite
unaware of (the task force's) existence."

The award, given by the Wisconsin Narcotics Officers Association, is
a first for the task force made up of officers from Madison police,
the Dane County Sheriff's Office and UW-Madison police.

There are 18 such drug units throughout the state. The award period
considered cases from 2007 through mid-2008.

"It's nice to be recognized by your peers," said Theune, who will
retire Jan. 2 after 27 years with Madison police and four years
leading the drug task force. "We all do the same thing and we are all
trying to achieve the same goals."

Association president Todd Laudert said the award each year is based
on a drug unit's overall statistics, including the types and amounts
of drugs seized, the number of arrests and searches, and the drug
money and weapons seized.

Theune's task force in 2007 seized more than two kilograms of crack
cocaine, three kilograms of powder cocaine, about 84 pounds of
marijuana and assorted other drugs, including heroin and ecstasy
pills in the largest single-case amounts ever seen in Dane County.

Members also made 261 arrests, conducted 166 drug-related searches
and made dozens of educational presentations.

"I believe they do a very good job (considering) the population and
the drugs that are in the Madison area," said Laudert, an Adams
County sheriff's deputy investigator. "Where I'm at, we're affected
by Madison because our main drug sources come out of there."

Task force members were led to one record-breaking drug seizure --
involving illegal pills -- indirectly, by way of an opium shipment.

The team learned in early 2007 that customs officers had identified
two packages of opium-soaked wood chips addressed to a Hmong family
on Madison's North Side.

The task force determined that the opium was intended for the mother
in the family, a woman in her 40s. That alone was enough for action,
but further investigation also implicated her 22-year-old daughter,
Ee Lee, in an apparent scheme to sell MDMA, an illegal stimulant
commonly known in pill form as Ecstasy. Nearly 8,500 pills -- a
record for Dane County -- were seized in that part of the case.

(This Ee Lee is not the young woman of the same name who was charged
with killing her infant daughter last year).

The two boxes with the opium-soaked wood chips were from Laos and
weighed more than 13 pounds. Members of the task force had seen such
packages a few times before, Theune said.

Suppliers try to hide the drugs by soaking a substance like wood
chips in the opium. Once received, the chips can be rehydrated to get
the opium out.

A search of the North Side family's apartment and the apartment of Ee
Lee's boyfriend in January 2007 by the task force turned up 8,472
ecstasy pills. By comparison, the task force seized about 725 ecstasy
pills in all of 2006.

Lee was sentenced this January to 37 months in federal prison after
pleading guilty to a charge of possession with intent to distribute
the pills. Her boyfriend wasn't charged. "He genuinely didn't know
what was going on," Theune said.

Also not charged was Lee's mother, who has a different last name than
her daughter. She wasn't involved with the pills, Theune said.

"Treatment alternatives are always a consideration for individuals
with issues of use and abuse," Theune said. "I know (prosecutors) do
consider overall circumstances and what the impact on the community is."

The second record-breaking drug case that Theune submitted in the
award nomination also began with a focus on a different drug.

On Oct. 10 of last year, 25-year-old Crisanto Martinez Lopez, a
Mexican national, was arrested with a kilogram of cocaine in his
waistband after he tried to deliver the drugs to a customer who was
secretly working with the task force and the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, authorities said.

After the arrest, officers searched his apartment on the South Side
of Madison, where they found two guns, some hollow-point bullets,
more cocaine, a scale and -- to the surprise of even the task force
members -- nearly a kilogram of heroin.

"For somebody to have that kind of a single amount, we really didn't
expect that," Theune said.

It was the largest single seizure of heroin in Dane County history,
Theune said, and more than 14 times the amount seized here in all of 2006.

Lopez pleaded guilty to drug charges and was sentenced in February to
nine years in federal prison followed by likely deportation,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rita Rumbelow said.

Theune said heroin use is on the rise in Dane County.

For the last few years, she said, an increasing number of area
dealers and users have been switching from cocaine to heroin. Better
drug enforcement on the Mexican border has produced shortages of
cocaine, driving up its price, Theune said. But heroin remains
plentiful and now is cheaper than cocaine, Theune said, with
predictable results.

What's more, heroin is much more "pure and potent" than it was in the
1970s and 1980s, Theune said, making it even more dangerous for users.

"It's highly addictive, and we are seeing a number of overdoses and,
occasionally, deaths," she said. "And those are just the ones that
get reported or brought to our attention. There's many more that
we're not aware of."

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BY THE NUMBERS

The Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force in 2007 seized:

2,058 grams of crack cocaine

3,350 grams of powder cocaine

340 marijuana plants

1 gram hash

1,347 ounces of marijuana

1,130 grams of heroin

2 grams of psilocybin mushrooms

6,339 grams of opium-soaked wood chips

8,472 doses of ecstasy

33 weapons

3 vehicles

$187,583 in forfeited cash

Source: Task force annual report

THE TASK FORCE ALSO:

Made 261 arrests.

Recommended 558 charges to prosecutors.

Executed 63 search warrants.

Provided security for five home searches by state probation and
parole agents looking for violations.

Conducted 17 "knock-and-talks," in which members question individuals
at their homes.

Made 71 community/neighborhood presentations.

Did 166 drug-related searches with police dogs, including:

74 in vehicles.

39 in homes.

8 in storage lockers.

6 in other buildings.

3 in safes.

6 ground searches.

26 door sniffs.

3 package sniffs.