Fighting Back: Part 4a

10% OF COAST CRIMES DRUG-RELATED

Authorities say arrest numbers don't show how serious the drug problem is
because most crimes of violence and property thefts also are related to drugs.

South Mississippi law enforcement officers are more convinced than ever
that public awareness and more investigations are needed to stem the
violence and other crimes associated with drug use and distribution.

About 10 percent of crimes reported in the three Coast counties last year
involved drug arrests, according to numbers compiled by the Mississippi
Coast Crime Commission. However, some officials believe the true picture
mirrors national statistics, which show that at least 70 percent of all
crime is drug-related.

Crime statistics don't give a true picture of illegal drug activity because
law enforcement agencies compile crime statistics by keeping track of
arrests on specific charges. For instance, if John Doe robs a bank for cash
to buy drugs, he is charged only with armed robbery unless he happens to
have drugs with him when he's arrested.

Related crimes

Day after day, Charlie Wood watches suspects appear in court on different
types of criminal charges. When a judge asks if they can pass a drug test,
most of them admit they can't, says Wood, who is an assistant district
attorney for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties.

"They break into houses to steal or they rob convenience stores to get
money to buy drugs," said Wood. "They're shooting each other because of a
drug deal that went bad, or they commit some other crime because they're
under the influence of drugs."

Drug addicts, including kids, often resort to burglaries, thefts and even
prostitution to make fast money, police say.

"If you've got a crack habit of $500 to $1,500 a day, you're not going to
get that kind of money working a regular job," said Sgt. John Miller, a
Biloxi police investigator assigned to the city's special crime unit.

About 20 percent of drug arrests made after undercover buys in Biloxi
involve juveniles, said Miller. Boys are more likely to steal to pay for
drugs, while girls are more likely to resort to prostitution for drug
money, he said. Young girls, however, are more likely to refer to
prostitution as "having a special friend."

Police and prosecutors say that crimes such as fraud often involve illegal
cover-ups of ways to come up with drug money by stealing and using other
people's credit cards or checking-account information.

That's not to mention medical-related problems. An estimated 43 percent of
1.1 million emergency room visits last year were linked to prescription
drug abuse or the abuse of non-prescription drugs, according to the Drug
Abuse Warning Network, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.

Law enforcement agencies depend on DARE programs and school resource
officers to teach kids about of the dangers of drugs and the people who
sell them.

But today's dealers are younger than they were 20 years ago, and their
methods have changed with technology.

"There's a decrease in street-corner buys here and nationwide because
dealers have figured out it's safer for them to use pagers and cell
phones," said Miller. "The bigger the dealer, the less noticeable they are."

"Dealers prey on younger people because it takes the heat off of them,"
said Sgt. John Miller. "If a kid gets arrested for selling drugs, he might
do only a little time at a training school while an adult dealer faces
prison time for the same thing."

"For some kids, the attraction is the life of hanging out all night," said
Miller. "But others are lured into it for material gain when they see it
can get them possessions like a $200 pair of tennis shoes or really nice
cars with $5,000 wheels.

"Once someone has an addiction that's costing them $500 to $1,500 a day,
they're going to resort to some form of crime to support their drug habit."

Dealing with drugs

Authorities believe that efforts to fight drugs hinge on a combination of
education, specialized training, and law enforcement officers working together.

The Bureau of Narcotics district office in Pascagoula broke new ground a
year ago by starting a series of public forums to educate parents and
others about methamphetamine and other popular illegal drugs. Previously,
area authorities were hesitant to release information to the general public
about items used to make make meth, although illicit chemists have been
able to find ingredients easily on most store shelves, along with recipes
posted on the Internet.

"Adults are lying to kids, telling them that drugs won't hurt them," said
narcotics agent Bruce Lynd, who spearheaded the training efforts after meth
labs began to crop up in Jackson and George counties.

"They're teaching kids how to make drugs, how to hide drugs and conceal
pills in packs of candy. Drug deals are going down in classrooms and living
rooms and adults don't know what's going on," Lynd said.

The Bureau of Narcotics works with local police agencies in undercover drug
roundups, which have led to the arrest of more than 100 street-level
dealers in South Mississippi since January.

The agency also works with federal agencies including the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration, which has trained about 40 local police to
handle meth lab seizures and cleanups in the southern half of the state.
Meth lab seizures have more than doubled statewide in the past year.

DEA has identified South Mississippi as a major corridor for transporting
illegal drugs and as a meeting place for drug transactions. Federal funds
have helped to train members of area agencies to stop illegal shipments
through criminal interdiction, which involves looking for criminal
activity, such as drug smuggling, in traffic stops.

Those efforts in the past year are how authorities have made numerous
high-profile arrests, and seized dozens of assault weapons and drugs valued
at thousands of dollars. Specialized equipment, such as fiber-optic cameras
small enough to slip inside a gas tank, often are used to help find illegal
substances that drug smugglers believe they've cleverly hidden.

Criminal interdiction efforts across the Mississippi Coast are coordinated
by the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, which made the largest meth
bust on the nation's highways in 2001, when an officer found 53 pounds of
the drug, valued at $2.2 million.

Authorities say that criminal interdiction efforts lead to related arrests
across the nation, with DEA and local police sharing information while they
try to stop drug shipments before they reach numerous neighborhoods.

Drugs and crime

National statistics show links between drug use and crime. They show:

34 percent of jail inmates incarcerated in 1999 for property or violent
crimes said they committed their offenses to get money for drugs.

4.4 percent of homicides in 2000 were drug-related.

28 percent of the victims of violent crime in 1999 reported the offender
was using drugs, alcohol, or both.

- - U.S. BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS