Pubdate: Mon, 14 Apr 2014
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2014 The Billings Gazette
Contact: http://billingsgazette.com/app/contact/?contact=letter
Website: http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Note: from the Associated Press

INCREASING DRUG TRADE, VIOLENCE MAR POSITIVE EFFECTS OF BAKKEN BOOM

WILLISTON, N.D. - The blood-drenched man had survived a brutal attack:
Beaten with brass knuckles, shocked with a stun gun, slashed with a
razor blade, then dumped 40 miles away in Montana, he staggered to a
farmhouse for help. His path eventually led authorities back to a
quiet backyard in this oil boom town.

What they uncovered was a large-scale methamphetamine ring. The
members of this violent gang were all relative newcomers to Williston.

They called themselves "The Family," the feds said, and were holed up
in a few campers tucked behind a white-frame house. They had plenty of
firepower, too: One of the men had 22 weapons.

Authorities said several "Family" members had abducted and planned to
kill one of their own, seeking to enforce their code of silence out of
fear he'd spill the group's secrets. They assaulted him in a camper in
Williston, stuffed him into a plastic-lined car trunk, then beat him
again after he escaped. He was left for dead in a Montana field. He
wound up, instead, in a North Dakota hospital, telling the FBI his
story.

The result: Seven guilty pleas. Prison sentences of up to 20 years.
And the dismantling of a drug-trafficking ring that sold meth for more
than a year.

The oil boom in the Bakken shale fields has touched off an explosion
of growth and wealth.

But the bonanza has also brought with it a dark side: a growing trade
in meth, heroin, cocaine and marijuana, the shadow of sinister cartels
and newfound violence.

Small-town police forces have been struggling to keep pace. In nearby
Watford City, police calls for service have multiplied at a staggering
rate - almost 100 times - in a five-year period. County jails overflow
on weekend nights. Local sheriffs no longer know every name and face
when they stroll down Main Street.

Drugs and dealers are popping up in all kinds of places: Heroin is
being trafficked on isolated Indian reservations. Mexican cartels are
making inroads in small-town America. And hard-core criminals are
bringing drugs in from other states, sometimes concealing them in
ingenious ways: liquid meth in windshield wiper reservoirs.

"Organized drug dealers are smart," said U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon.
"They're good businessmen. They go where the demand is and that's what
we're seeing here. ... There's simply a lot of money involved, a lot
of money flowing around in those communities."

With the problems becoming more pronounced, the feds are providing
resources to bolster local police and drug task forces.

"We're battling our butts off to stay ahead of this," Purdon said.
"Our concern is that this is an open market and as people start to
compete, the violence will increase. ... There's nothing less at stake
here than our way of life."

More people, more crime

The oil boom was already underway more than three years ago when
Purdon was sworn in as chief federal prosecutor for western North Dakota.

The Bakken Formation - tens of thousands of square miles of
oil-bearing shale under the prairies of western North Dakota, Eastern
Montana and part of Canada - was touted as a modern-day gold rush.
Thousands flocked here, most law-abiding Americans in search of good
jobs. But the lure of big money was a guaranteed draw, too, for drug
dealers and other troublemakers.

As the population skyrocketed, Purdon noticed a seemingly inevitable
consequence: more people, more crime.

Federal prosecutions in the western half of North Dakota nearly
tripled - from 126 in 2009 to 336 last year - mostly, he said, because
of drug cases involving several people.

In Montana, 70 people - about half from outside the region - have been
charged since October with federal drug offenses. Last spring, about
10 others, included two reputed members of the notorious Sinaloa
cartel, were accused in a drug conspiracy. The two pleaded guilty to
distributing at least 80 pounds of meth to local drug dealers within a
five-month period; the intended market, the feds said, was the oil
patch.

The cartel members also traded meth for about 150 guns, some of which
ended up in Mexico, according to authorities.

"We have a formidable opponent," said Mike Cotter, U.S. attorney in
Montana. "They market it well. They move it well and it's a battle
that we have to continue to fight."

It's not one that's readily visible.

Drug deals are arranged in phone calls, behind closed doors or along
back streets of once-sleepy towns now pulsating with the work of a
multibillion-dollar oil industry. Tanker trucks rumble down the roads
day and night. Recent arrivals come and go from "man camps" - rows of
identical, barracklike dorms sitting on empty fields. And cars with
license plates from almost every state in the union zip in and out of
crowded fast-food parking lots.

"The idea of having junkies hanging around the rigs and the fracking
sites - that's not happening," said Williams County Sheriff Scott Busching.

'Mom and pop' labs no more

Drugs are not new here. Years ago, homegrown meth was a scourge in
North Dakota but its supply was sharply reduced by a crackdown on
"mom-and-pop" meth labs and legislation that made it harder to buy
ingredients.

These days, the drug trade looks a lot different.

Meth is still most common, but most of it originates in Mexico. It's
more potent and is generally being found in larger quantities. (In
Ward County, about two hours away, meth seizures jumped from $63,200
in 2012 to $404,600 last year, according to the sheriff's office.)

Heroin is more visible, something that "scares me," said Busching, who
adds that he'd probably rate the drug problem in his county a 7 on a
scale of 10.

Prices are up, too, fueled by demand in an area where lots of young
men are flush with cash, far from their families and have little to do
in their spare time.

Authorities say a gram of meth that might sell for $120 in big cities
can cost $200 in Williston. In Montana, an ounce that might have sold
for $800 in 2008 now goes for about $2,400-$2800.

Guns also are increasingly involved.

"We're seeing a lot more armed drug traffickers than I've previously
noticed," said Derek Hill, an ATF agent in Bismarck. "It's kind of a
two-way street," he said, with guns used as protection and for barter.

The ATF opened a bureau last year in Bottineau and within the first
five months, the agent had opened 14 weapons cases throughout western
North Dakota, many also involving drugs, said Scott Sweetow, special
agent in charge in the region.

Another difference: Authorities are seeing more criminals from out of
state, some with long rap sheets. One of the suspects arrested by the
Bottineau agent had 15 felonies, according to the ATF.

The seven men in the 2012 abduction-drug conspiracy had all come to
Williston within two years of their arrests. Brian Dahl, also known as
Kodiak, had transported meth from Washington, according to documents.
Though his felony record should have barred him from owning firearms,
he was arrested with nine rifles, six pistols, four shotguns and three
revolvers. He's awaiting sentencing.

Jeffrey Jim Butler, also known as Pops, identified by the feds as The
Family's recruiter, had an assault and drug record. He's serving a
20-year sentence after pleading guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy to
distribute methamphetamine.

In another big drug bust, a 24-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., man who
was jailed back home on murder, assault and gang charges was among 22
people indicted in January in "Operation Pipe Cleaner." The group is
accused of trafficking heroin, crack, cocaine, marijuana and
painkillers in the Dickinson area, about 100 miles from Williston.

And "Operation Winter's End"- an ongoing local, state and federal
probe - also has tentacles that extend well beyond the Bakken. More
than 40 people have been charged with dealing heroin and meth in and
around the Fort Berthold reservation, home to the Three Affiliated
Tribes.

Among the accused: residents of California and Colorado alleged to
have been a drug connection for local dealers.

"It used to be if someone was selling methamphetamine in the area,
there probably were six degrees of separation from a Mexican cartel or
a motorcycle gang," Purdon said. "Those drugs were passing through a
lot of different hands before they ended up on the street. Generally,
what we're seeing now is only one or two degrees."

Local police chiefs deal with the tragic results.

In New Town, on the Fort Berthold reservation, Art Walgren, police
chief until recently, said he knew when a new batch of heroin arrived
because there'd be a rash of overdoses.

Like many oil patch towns, drugs are part of a larger crime wave that
includes more thefts, bar fights and domestic violence. "We kind of
run around plugging holes in the dikes," Walgren said, "hoping they
don't break."

Federal officials - including Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Heidi
Heitkamp, D-N.D., who met in the Bakken last summer to discuss drugs -
are focusing on the area.

The FBI - which is planning a permanent office in the region - ATF,
the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Indian Affairs have
added or diverted resources. Last fall, the feds and state officials
in both states launched "Project Safe Bakken," a collaborative effort
to pursue criminal networks, including drug dealers.

And Williams County - home to Williston - was recently designated a
high-intensity drug trafficking area, paving the way for more federal
dollars. Some of that aid will be used by the North Dakota attorney
general's office to add a prosecutor who will specialize in drug cases.

Local police desperately need the help.

A North Dakota State University study released last year, called
"Policing the Patch," found the number of police calls for service in
Williston had quadrupled from 2005 to 2011 to nearly 16,000. In
Watford City - about 30 miles away - there were just 41 calls in 2006.
In 2011: almost 4,000.

Nearly a third of police officers in the study said the drug problem
is acute.

"I think one in every five people that I deal with has drugs on them,"
one unidentified officer said.

Another summed up the situation this way:

"More drugs than we have ever dealt with. ... Ninety percent of the
people who come here to work in the oil fields are good people. The 10
percent of the people who work in the oil fields that are problems
make it bad for the rest of them."

A view from the bench

Judge David Nelson sees some of those lawbreakers in his
court.

A 31-year veteran of the bench, Nelson, presiding judge of the
Northwest judicial district of North Dakota, said the most dramatic
change in crime that has occurred is the degree of violence. "It's not
just two guys duking it out and shaking hands," he said. "The knives
come out. People drive cars over other people. The guns come out."

Nelson estimates more than half his cases involve newcomers.

Before the boom, he said, "I pretty much knew most of the defendants.
I knew their parents, their kids, their grandparents, their next-door
neighbors. Now I can go weeks and see people I've never seen before.
It's amazing how many people are arrested within days of getting here."

With workers living at temporary addresses and drug dealers adept at
blending in, investigators find it hard to develop the kind of who's
who of local crime that other police departments have at their fingertips.

"It's like trying to capture smoke," said Bryan Lockerby,
administrator of the Montana Department of Justice's Division of
Criminal Investigation. "It runs the gamut from high-end cartels to
street dealers. It's not like you catch one organization and it's over."

Federal agents say the same.

"I really think it's going to take us awhile to sort of determine
which organizations are having the biggest influence," said J. Chris
Warrener, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis division,
which includes North Dakota. "It's safe to say the Mexican cartels are
involved but that the drugs are not necessarily flowing straight up
from Mexico."

One thing is certain: There is a brisk narcotics trade. It continues
even though most oil companies conduct drug tests, both for hiring,
and later, randomly.

Patrick Johnsen has seen it firsthand.

Johnsen, 29, came to the Bakken in 2010 to escape drugs. He'd been
heavy into meth and crack back home in the Chicago suburbs and decided
to start over, moving to North Dakota. He arrived with a mountain of
debt and $11.72 in his pocket.

He found an oil job using engineering skills he'd acquired during
college. But old habits die hard. "I was still under the mindset of
'work hard, party hard,'" Johnsen said. He was arrested for drunken
driving and fired.

He turned things around, though, and has been sober since September
2012. Johnsen now works on an oil rig in Montana. He helped start a
twice-weekly support group of recovering substance abusers and stays
out of bars.

Johnsen said some workers use drugs, falsely believing it will
"increase their endurance, their alertness. It's that hustle that goes
with all drugs in terms of what you believe it'll make you do .. work
harder, work stronger, work longer, when in fact, it actually makes
you that much more sloppy and makes you such a safety hazard on the
job."

Johnsen knows there's another kind of danger.

He's reminded of it by a photo on his cellphone of a friend who'd come
to the Bakken, attended his support group and recently lost his
struggle with alcohol and drugs.

"He was a young guy," he said. "There was no reason he should have
died."

Adjusting to changes

Every day, Williams County Sheriff Busching - a self-described
"die-hard, old-school cop" - faces the ever-changing landscape that
is the Bakken:

More serious traffic accidents. More arrests. And a county jail filled
to capacity. The average nightly inmate population has jumped from 24
five years ago to 135.

The veteran sheriff said he once employed a "North Dakota nice"
philosophy where law enforcement tried to solve problems, whenever
possible, by avoiding tickets and jailing people. Now there's no time
for that.

Busching - who notes this area is in its third oil boom - compares the
transformation of the Bakken to a home renovation: messy, chaotic at
times. But ultimately, good.

He celebrates the positive - the wealth of jobs that pay well, the new
businesses, the promise of oil riches for years to come - that would
be the envy of any community.

He acknowledges the negative, too, the drugs and everything else, but
said he's tired of those who dwell on that.

Busching concedes it took time for him to accept the dramatic changes
but he came around.

"I wanted my old town back, my old country back," he said. "I liked it
that way. I want it to be Mayberry. But when I came to realization
that it's never, ever going to be that way (I thought) ... Well, let's
stick around and see if we can make it the best place possible."

It's a long-term project. Oil is expected to flow in the Bakken for
another generation or more.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D