WIRETAPPING KEY TO DRUG ENFORCEMENT

Raynham Police Chief Louis Pacheco has long been an advocate of using
technology to combat crime. His office at the Orchard Street police
station is multimedia command center, lined with large flat-screen
video monitors and computer terminals showing schools playgrounds and
Raynham's busy commercial roadway.

It's an approach to law enforcement that is getting a lot of attention.

Recently he attended a press conference in New Bedford to lend his
support for the use of electronic surveillance during investigations
of big-time drug dealers.

The event highlighted the pivotal role a wiretap played in a major
New Bedford drug bust that netted 200 grams of cocaine, $50,000 cash,
several vehicles, homes, 24 weapons and two dozen drug-related
suspects, including three high-level drug dealers from the Fall River
and New Bedford area.

Code-named Operation Lightning, the investigation was led by Bristol
County District Attorney Samuel Sutter and included Lakeville and
Dartmouth police as well as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Office of Investigations in Boston.

The bust was the direct result of a crime-fighting tool that Pacheco
and Sutter agree is crucial to infiltrating drug networks that rely
on sophisticated technology like smart phones and other high-tech equipment.

The practice of using wiretaps, however, fell out favor during the
16-year tenure of former Bristol County DA Paul Walsh.

"It was a major issue during (Sutter's) 2006 campaign," said Sutter's
spokesman Gregg Miliote. "He sounded the alarm that this is the
proactive way to go after drug offenders."

And it was a tool cops like Pacheco wanted to have back in their
hands. "As a result (Sam Sutter) has had some very successful cases,"
Pacheco said.

The Raynham police chief, Miliote said, is known across the state,
and even internationally, for his expertise in combining technology
with police work.

To combat 21st century criminals, Pacheco said electronics should be
used like they were in the 1970s to break up organized crime syndicates.

"I believe the wiretap is going to become very important because it's
the central nervous system of any type of drug network investigation," he said.

Drug dealing operations follow a cycle of distribution, organized
networks, money and violence, Pacheco said.

"The only way to get into the loop is with computer and
interception," he said. "Going forward it's going to be imperative
that law enforcement use digital tools," he said.

Miliote said the last week's investigation got its big break when a
court-approved wiretap picked up a conversation that lead police to
observe a transaction between a major drug supplier and a dealer
parked on a darkened road in Dartmouth.

It was Sutter's second biggest drug sting.

In 2007, he launched an eight-month wiretap investigation that
resulted in 25 arrests in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fairhaven.
Authorities raided five residences and seized large amounts of
cocaine and marijuana.

The use of electronic surveillance allows law enforcement to stop
crime as it happens, rather than solve them later, Miliote said.
Sutter runs "a crime fighting office," he said that does not sit back
and wait for crime to happen. "We'll use any practical measure to go
after the worst criminals in Bristol County."

Earlier this month, Sutter stood beside state Attorney General Martha
Coakley during a press conference to unveil her bill to expand
electronic surveillance and to toughen laws and sentences to combat
organized crime, street gangs and other illegal operations.

"The state needs to have the same ability as the federal government
to crack down on large scale criminal enterprises," Miliote said.