Hyperalert 'Tweakers' Have Time, Focus To Piece Together Shredded Documents

Early one morning last September, security guards at the Muckleshoot
Casino in Auburn, Wash., searched a suspicious backpack that had been
left on a floor. They found baggies full of methamphetamine and a
slew of stolen credit cards.

It was tangible evidence of what law-enforcement officials say is a
growing link between meth addiction and identity theft. Authorities
increasingly are finding stolen credit cards and other telltale signs
of identity theft when they raid meth labs. And they say an
increasing number of meth abusers are selling personal information,
opening up new phony lines of credit or turning to other forms of
identity theft to fund their addictions.

The correlation between meth and identity theft is particularly
strong in the West, where meth first took root among biker gangs in
the 1960s, authorities say.

In the San Francisco area, narcotics agents routinely bring
identity-theft specialists with them when they raid meth labs,
because they almost always find stolen credit cards and other tools
used to commit fraud next to the drug pipes, needles and pills. In
Washington state, Attorney General Rob McKenna says, "meth use is the
single biggest driver of identity theft." Officials in Colorado say
meth addicts, or "tweakers," account for 99% of the identity-theft
criminals they apprehend.

Much of the newer, high-tech forms of ID theft that have sprung up in
the digital age, such as "phishing," are run by organized crime rings
overseas, authorities say. Meth addicts tend to be more engaged in
older, lower-tech varieties, such as stealing credit-card numbers and
checking-account information from wallets, dumpsters and mailboxes,
though investigators say they sometimes find evidence of both forms
when raiding meth labs. Sgt. Anthony Munoz of the Alameda, Calif.,
police department, who teaches courses to cops across California
about the connection, estimates that meth abusers commit nearly 90%
of "low-tech" identity theft.

Hard statistics linking meth and identity theft aren't available. The
Justice Department keeps track of drug crimes but the Federal Trade
Commission analyzes identify theft. The Senate Commerce Committee
this summer passed a measure, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Maria
Cantwell of Washington, that would compel the two agencies to join
forces in studying the correlation.

The connection, authorities speculate, lies in the effects of meth, a
synthetic stimulant that puts users in an energetic, hyperalert state
for up to 12 hours at a time. Since most addicts are unemployed, the
prolonged buzz gives them the time and attentiveness to become
skilled identity thieves, weaving together bits of stolen personal
data so they can open new lines of credit and make fraudulent
purchases. Addicts resell products to unsuspecting customers via
online auction sites -- or old-fashioned pawn shops -- to get the
cash needed for drugs or the supplies needed to produce them.

"Methamphetamine producers/abusers typically are detail-oriented and
have obsessive-compulsive personalities," the Justice Department's
National Drug Intelligence Center said in a bulletin last year. "They
often pass the time by performing repetitive tasks such as
reconstructing shredded documents they steal from garbage cans," the
bulletin said. "Because they can't obtain a steady income, identity
theft becomes an easy way for methamphetamine producers/abusers to
finance their addictions."

Detectives who have spent years working drug cases say other kinds of
drug abusers don't have the same capacity to pull off identity-theft
crimes. "Most of your heroin addicts can barely raise up enough
energy to steal baby formula from the local convenience store," says
Sgt. Munoz. "These people are up for days at a time, and they have an
inordinate amount of time to figure out how to scam people."

Authorities say many meth addicts operate in an underworld food
chain. At the bottom are "collectors," street-level users who sift
through mailboxes, dumpsters or offices for useful information and
sell it to "converters," the financial specialists who actually
commit identity theft by opening new accounts or making online
purchases. Collectors prefer to hide behind computer screens, but
"passers" are brazen enough to use fake checks and other documents at
retail stores and banks.

In the Muckelshoot Casino case, the backpack belonged to Scotty
Jones, a collector. He was convicted of three felonies -- two counts
of possession of stolen property and one count related to meth -- and
served a six-month sentence in King County, Wash.

Amanda Kobrick, a 22-year-old student at Arizona State University,
sputtered into a meth habit last year and became a passer for a meth
ring that financed itself through fraudulent purchases. She got
busted in December after trying to buy expensive tires and rims using
the identity of a county prosecutor. After pleading guilty, she
cooperated with investigators and was sentenced to 60 days jail time
in Maricopa County, Ariz., on Aug. 15. Ms. Kobrick will also serve
360 hours of community service, continue counseling for substance
abuse, and pay over $2,600 in restitution to three separate victims.

"She ran into some people that were extremely sophisticated in this
type of fraud," said Tom Crowe, Ms. Kobrick's attorney.

In August, two individuals who spearheaded a meth-identity theft ring
affiliated with the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang were sentenced to
seven-year terms in Arizona. Along with a stash of meth in the
kitchen at the group's headquarters -- a Phoenix apartment guarded by
surveillance cameras and a pit bull -- police found notebooks with
meticulous personal information, one per victim, on 435 individuals.
There also were several cellphones, each with a Post-it Note attached
to remind the perpetrators whose identity it represented when
potential creditors called.

Congress and state legislatures are addressing the meth and
identity-theft issues on separate tracks. At least a dozen states
have moved to restrict sales of pseudoephedrine, the primary
ingredient used to make meth, by putting the common-cold medicines
that contain it behind the counter. The Senate recently passed a
similar provision on a spending bill. Prospects for final passage are
uncertain because the House version doesn't contain the anti-meth amendment.

Meanwhile, nearly every state has passed or is considering laws aimed
at reducing identity theft. Some require companies to notify
consumers if a breach occurs, while others enable consumers to place
a "freeze" on their credit file if they suspect they have been
targeted by identity thieves. The House and Senate are considering
bills that would do both, but many consumer groups are worried that
they will preempt tougher state measures.