Meth’s reach tempers fall in crime rate

BOISE – The new showroom that Rexburg Motorsports plans to move to later this year isn’t intended simply to lure potential customers out of the eastern Idaho winter to peruse its snowmobiles, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.

After the dealer’s outdoor storage was robbed again in February – $46,000 worth of ATVs and dirtbikes were taken – co-owner Jared Burt said one consideration was increased security: 90 percent of his stock will be stored inside at the new digs.

“We’re investing in intrusion systems and cameras” costing up to $30,000, Burt said in a telephone interview from the store he’s owned for seven years in Rexburg, about 280 miles northeast of Boise. “Most of the security is provided by the facility itself, the ability to lock things up inside.”

Burt’s investment in theft protection is one of the hidden costs of statewide crime, outlined Wednesday in the Idaho State Police’s annual “Crime in Idaho” report.

The overall crime rate for offenses such as murder and rape slipped 1.9 percent last year to 6,869 crimes per 100,000 residents. But crimes including burglary, car theft and drug offenses were still on the rise.

Authorities say that’s no coincidence.

Car stereos, computers and construction equipment that get filched from Riggins to Rigby – and Burt’s ATVs and motorcycles – often become part of an illicit barter system, as users of drugs trade or sell stolen goods to get drugs.

Earlier this year, police busted a seven-member methamphetamine ring alleged to have robbed more than 20 businesses in Chubbuck, Pocatello, Inkom and Soda Springs since December. Theft proceeds were used to finance members’ drug habits, agents said.

Idaho burglaries rose 1.9 percent to 7,701 offenses. Nearly 2,700 cars were stolen, a 7.2 percent increase.

“Almost any crime we have in the county you can generally link to drugs,” said Mike Courtney, a Madison County sheriff’s detective. “A drug habit is an expensive habit. If you’re taking meth, you’re awake for three or four days at a time. It’s hard to hold down a steady job. You’ve got to get the drugs somehow.”

The value of property reported stolen in the state last year advanced 12.1 percent to nearly $51 million, according the ISP report. That’s 31 percent more than five years ago, as perpetrators of burglary, larceny and auto theft netted bigger-ticket items.

Simultaneously, arrests for drug and narcotics violations including possession and distribution increased 3.8 percent to 6,667. Drug-equipment violations – the unlawful manufacture, sale, purchase, possession, or transportation of equipment or devices utilized in making or using drugs – rose 8.1 percent to 6,329.

Concern about meth abuse is growing locally and nationally. A National Association of Counties survey of 500 sheriff’s departments in 45 states, released Tuesday, showed that abuse of the illegal, highly addictive stimulant has become the leading drug problem for local law enforcement.

“Methamphetamine is our biggest problem. It actually has surpassed marijuana as our No. 2 drug problem following alcohol substance abuse,” said Idaho State Police Investigator Don VanCleave.

Between 20 percent and 27 percent of inmates in county jails are charged with crimes linked to meth abuse, he said.

Shipments of the drug from laboratories south of the U.S.-Mexican border now account for 90 percent of methamphetamine seized in Idaho, VanCleave said, with just a tenth of the drug manufactured locally.

Meth seizures declined to 86 pounds from 106 pounds in 2003, according to the ISP report.

“Remember years ago, when people talked about crack cocaine?” said Sgt. Doug Crosby, who manages Valley County’s 64-inmate jail in Cascade, some 85 miles north of Boise. “Nobody even talks about crack anymore. It’s all meth.”