After drug bust, officers reflect on SLC opioid crisis: "We can't arrest our way out of this."
Police officers are still making arrests in a massive heroin sweep across St. Lawrence County. More than 100 people were taken into custody last...
Jun 06, 2017 — Police officers are still making arrests in a massive heroin sweep across St. Lawrence County. More than 100 people were taken into custody last week and the list of suspects continues to grow.
St. Lawrence Coutny Sheriff Kevin Wells said Monday that two more people were arrested over the weekend and another that morning. Two of the suspects hailed from Syracuse and one is from St. Lawrence County.
At a press conference on Friday, Wells said local, state, and federal law enforcement spent nearly a year investigating heroin sales. Through that investigation — nicknamed "Operation Gravy Train" — officers believe they’ve found a network of dealers that stretches from New York City into St. Lawrence County, north to Canada.
"The Norfolk Police Department, Canton, Potsdam, Massena, Gouverneur, Ogdensburg," Wells said, "all these communities are struck by this."
The sheriff spoke at a podium at the county jail, behind tables covered with heroin and handguns confiscated from people’s homes. But our reporter, Lauren Rosenthal, says what was most striking about this press conference was what police had to say about how little power they have to end the drug epidemic that’s sweeping the North Country.
Here's her conversation with Martha Foley.
Martha Foley: So, this story broke Thursday and it was a big one. You made some calls to police and almost right away, you noticed this reaction — a kind of frustration, even on the day they were announcing all these arrests.
Lauren Rosenthal: Right. The county sheriff, Kevin Wells, said the opioid epidemic is very real in the North Country, and it's not a problem that we can arrest our way out of. He actually urged reporters to write stories that examine the effects more broadly.
Kevin Wells, St. Lawrence County sheriff's office:Whole separate discussions and media pieces should be done on the amount of deaths that are occurring in our communities, either by death or by overdose or suicides related back to somebody’s substance abuse problem.
Wells went on to talk about Narcan, which is a lifesaving drug that reverses the effects of an overdose. He said first responders are using it more and more, all across the county, which puts a strain on EMTs, firefighters, even hospitals.
MF: So, like Wells said, heroin abuse comes with a huge social cost. It’s also an expensive problem to tackle. Exactly how much money went into this investigation in St. Lawrence County?
LR: At the moment, we don't know. The sheriff’s office wouldn’t give me an estimate on how much work this was or how much the investigation cost. We do know that the state kicked in to cover some overtime pay for officers. We’re talking about 22 police agencies participating here: Border Patrol, police from other counties.
But if we put this special investigation aside — just day to day — Massena police chief Adam Love says local officers in the North Country are slammed.
Adam Love, Massena police: With the call volumes that every department has up here, now the opioid epidemic has taken over. We have mental health...a lot of incidents that we have. So we don’t have enough here to handle what’s going on.
Massena just added a dedicated drug investigator to its police force, and Love says that person’s going to be really busy. Remember: Massena is a community of just 11,000 people. But so far, 23 people have been arrested in Massena as a result of these heroin raids.
MF: What message did police have for people living in these communities that are so affected by heroin and opioid abuse? Who are seeing it happen around them?
LR: That’s the tough part. The police chief in Gouverneur, Laurina Greenhill, says she encourages people to call in tips, but a major investigation into the underlying problem — how drugs are getting into the community — is going to take a lot of time. It has to be done quietly. So Greenhill says people in her community might be in the dark for months.
Laurina Greenhill, Gouverneur police: I know they get frustrated sometimes. I know they get disappointed that law enforcement isn’t as reactive as they think that they should be. I just want them to know that sometimes, there’s more going on than what you know.
MF: Sounds like she’s asking people to put some trust in police to do their job.
LR: That’s right. But asking for some time and space is pretty tough. These drugs are being bought and sold every day; people are overdosing and sometimes dying. A lot of these police officers we just heard from were born and raised in the North Country, and they say it’s incredibly painful to watch. No one wants this to become normal.
Have you or someone you know struggled with addiction to heroin or prescription drugs? Have you been able to get the help you need here in the North Country? Please consider sharing your story with NCPR. Email news@ncpr.org or find us on Facebook. You may be contacted by a reporter. Thank you.
