March 31, 2002 - Oakland Press
About this series

The war on drugs is an ongoing battle. But now, police and government agencies have united to do something about it. Today and Monday, The Oakland Press examines our county's war on drugs.

Today, we look at local agencies' efforts to unite and how community policing is helping law enforcement. Monday, former Detroit undercover narcotics officers explain how the war on drugs is failing, and undercover officers discuss what it's like to be part of the violent drug subculture.

The 26-year-old Pontiac woman, who has walked the streets for about five years, sells sex to support her drug addiction. She said she has smoked crack since age 14, starting after curiosity led her to ask what "a rock" was at a party. Since then, "I've been in trouble all of my life," said the woman, who asked not to be named. Crack cocaine has led this young white mother of three children to prostitute herself, seeing an average of five men a day. She said she wants to kick the habit. But don't hold your breath.

"I've been off of it for years at a time," she said. "I always go back." She hopes to enter a treatment center soon. Drug addiction - and its crippling effect on society - is nothing new. But now, a wide range of police and government agencies have united to do something about what may be the nation's biggest domestic problem. And instead of leaving the main responsibility to the state police, the Oakland County sheriff's office is taking charge. Still, all agree it is a long, hard battle, with victory nowhere in sight.

The root of crime

Drugs are, police officials agree, at the root of most modern crime - perhaps as much as 75 to 80 percent. Prostitution, theft, fraud and robberies are committed to feed habits. Addiction and crime know no political borders. And at long last, police agencies are realizing they have to adopt the same attitude. "It's got to be a regional, state and federal effort, or it's just never going to work," said Franklin Police Chief Edward Glomb, who worked undercover in the Detroit-area narcotics unit of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department in the 1970s.

Ironically, Sept. 11 may have helped deal a blow to the drug dealers. Pontiac Police Chief Rollie Gackstetter said increased sharing of tips and informant information between law enforcement agencies is one benefit to come out of the nation's war on terrorism. "The level of communication has improved so much," Gackstetter said of the combined efforts of federal, state and local police. "We're building relationships." While Pontiac has regular officers making arrests and gathering information, the department's narcotics unit leads mid-level investigations. It also works with police by sharing information on a county, state and federal level.

Joint effort

When three major drug busts in Farmington Hills were made within one month last year, law-abiding residents throughout the region benefited.

·  On Jan. 11, 2001, a Miami man was arrested with more than 100 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $23 million by the NET (Narcotics Enforcement Team) after a traffic stop in Farmington Hills.

·  Two days later, SONIC (South Oakland Narcotics Intelligence Consortium) arrested a Farmington Hills couple with 360 grams of heroin, more than $50,000 in cash, and four ounces of marijuana.

·  On Jan. 26, SONIC initiated another bust in that city. Haul: 25 pounds of marijuana and eight guns.

"That's the key - working together and communication," said Capt. Michael McCabe of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department.  There are more than 40 police agencies in Oakland County, and it is crucial to have police able to cross borders to keep investigations from slowing down. "Criminals don't recognize jurisdictional boundaries," Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. Last year, he took over the Narcotics Enforcement Team, a multi-jurisdictional unit previously run by the Michigan State Police.

Bouchard has been praised by the departments involved in NET because of his emphasis on working closely with them, said Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer. The sheriff sends weekly status reports to all police chiefs involved and NET conducts investigations in their cities when a chief reports a problem. "Our response to local concerns is the highest priority," said Lt. Joe Quisenberry, who heads the 27-officer unit. "A little problem in Clarkston or Lathrup Village is going to be addressed as much as a big case." There are two drug task forces operating many undercover investigations in the county: NET by the Oakland County Sheriff's Department and SONIC by the Farmington Hills Police Department.

NET

NET consists of members from 14 police agencies: The Oakland County Sheriff's Department, the FBI, West Bloomfield Township, Southfield, Ferndale, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Waterford Township, Lathrup Village, Pontiac, Madison Heights, Bloomfield Township, Hazel Park and the Macomb County Sheriff's Department. The unit includes five crews of about five officers each. Three of the groups focus on street-level investigations - the people who sell to users. One crew targets interstate and international couriers who ship drugs into or out of the region. The other follows the conspiracy aspect of the trade, working on mid- and upper-level distribution organizations.

"We specialize in doing undercover narcotic investigations," Quisenberry said. It costs the county $1.2 million a year to run the unit. Besides personnel and training, the sheriff's department provides office space, utilities, equipment, vehicles, computers, radio and surveillance tools. Last year, NET conducted 177 raids, arresting 235 people and seizing $800,000 in cash and assets, mostly cars and jewelry. About $85 million in street value worth of drugs were seized by the department. It began 601 investigations, many of which are ongoing. NET works with the federal government - Drug Enforcement Agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

SONIC

The South Oakland Narcotics Intelligence Consortium uses officers from three police agencies: Farmington Hills, Novi and West Bloomfield. With more than a dozen officers, it responds to local drug cases and occasionally goes out of the state. In May, it took a small bit of information about an arrest in Detroit that netted 10 pounds of marijuana. That tip led SONIC to a home in Novi where 90 pounds of marijuana and $57,000 in cash were confiscated. The arrests from the second bust led SONIC and the FBI to a warehouse in Chicago, where another 218 pounds of marijuana were located.

That sort of cooperation between local police departments and the federal government is what is needed to rid the city of drugs, Dwyer said. And even a small tip, seemingly insignificant, can start an investigation that leads to such arrests and seizures.

The drugs of choice

Oakland County is mainly plagued by marijuana, heroin and cocaine, though a new drug - ecstasy - is in vogue among youths. "Ecstasy at this time is becoming a real health concern," Quisenberry said. "It's dangerous. It elevates the body temperatures (which causes problems with the brain's functioning)." With varying quality and unreliable ingredients, ecstasy has proved deadly. Even when pure, its dangers are not yet fully known. "Ecstasy, it scares the hell out of me," Glomb said, especially because it is so available.But the traditional drugs are still most popular. "In Oakland County, marijuana and cocaine are the biggest," Quisenberry said. "Heroin is still popular in more urban regions. Marijuana still continues to be the most popular drug."

Dangerous hallucinogenics such as PCP or LSD are less used, and because the area is so affluent, heroin and methamphetamines are not commonly abused, he said.And Quisenberry said there are more reports of abuse of the painkiller OxyContin. "It's replacing the Vicodan and Percodan."

Forfeiture

Michigan's Legislature has given law enforcement one big tool in the fight against drugs: The forfeiture law, which enables police agencies to seize and keep cash or property obtained through the sale of illegal drugs. The concept is simple. High-level drug dealers should not be allowed to keep money made illegally. Using these ill-gotten profits to help defray the cost of fighting the war on drugs makes sense to lawmakers. "I'm all for those types of laws that tend to punish the major dealers," Glomb said of forfeiture. "Those laws have really had an impact." Farmington Hills defense attorney Raymond Cassar isn't as enthusiastic. His main complaint with forfeiture is that the defendant must prove the money was not drug money - rather than the burden of proof on the government.

The West Bloomfield Police Department has been very fortunate in recent years, catching a pair of million-dollar windfalls. Police Chief Ronald Cronin has not had to ask the township to buy equipment because his department has about $3 million saved from forfeitures. In November of 1999, a three-month investigation by West Bloomfield police that began with a traffic stop led to $1.3 million in drug money stowed in a Royal Oak garage. The woman who lived there was keeping the money for a man who died of an overdose in a motel days later.

Eleven months later, $1.5 million was found in an empty apartment in West Bloomfield during an eviction. No one claimed the money; police believe the cash was from drug sales. "It's almost unbelievable," Cronin said. "It's good for the police department because I don't have to go back and ask the township for money for supplies or vehicles." Cronin said the department used it to purchase in-car cameras, computers, drug testing equipment, vehicles, firearms, electronic tracking devices, three radar trailers that display motorists' speeds, and equipment for the department's two drug-sniffing dogs.

Treatment

Ordering treatment, including monitoring with drug and alcohol tests, has become a standard part of the sentencing for criminal offenses. Four of five inmates at the Oakland County Jail have a drug or alcohol problem, and a variety of programs are used to treat them, said Ann Russell, corrections administrator. Both Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meet regularly. There are classes about chemical dependency. And substance abuse is one of the key subjects discussed in programs getting prisoners ready for employment.

Of the jail's 22,922 admissions in 2000, 30 percent were from people charged with substance abuse crimes, Russell said. She said the recidivism rate - how many released inmates end up back in jail - is about 68 percent nationwide. For drug addicts, going back to jail is the rule. Another Pontiac prostitute is a heroin addict in her late 30s who doesn't even know how many times she's been arrested. She attended college and has worked as a medical assistant, but after getting hooked on heroin about a decade ago, she has been unable to stay clean. "I used to work the street all day every day - just to get drugs," she said. "The only time I really got clean is when I went to jail."

She relapsed in December, and said she will soon enter a court-ordered treatment program. The mother of two sounded eager to go, noting that if she did not attend the 90-day program, she faced a year behind bars. "This is my third time trying to get clean," she said. But each time, she said she failed to keep up with her meetings and her prayer groups. Then she would slide back into hanging with the wrong crowd. Police aren't optimistic. "Unless they are getting some professional treatment or in jail, we see the same faces over and over again," said Pontiac Police Sgt. Robert Miller, who has dealt with her on his beat for a long time. Sheriff Bouchard said that low-level users need to be steered in the right direction with boot camp, a short sentence or long probation.

"It's important that treatment be connected to a very real punishment," he said. But unless they stick to treatment, an addiction to narcotics will force most users to "resort to crime to support that addiction," the sheriff added. And when that happens, the vicious cycle is bound to go on.