Sheriff’s Office points to increase in possession, dealing, overdoses
St. Charles Parish is experiencing a resurgence in heroin use, dealing and overdoses, a problem also reported statewide and nationally.
“New Orleans is a regional marketplace for heroin and we’re feeling the effects of that in St. Charles Parish,” said Lt. Marlon Shuff, the Sheriff’s Office commander of special investigations in narcotics. “Geographically, we’re not that far away.”
Arrests of individuals with possession of heroin, as well as those charged with intent to distribute (dealers) are higher so far this year compared to last year, Shuff said.
As alarming is how much of the drug has been found on dealers.An April arrest involved an individual who had three ounces of heroin, he said. This is considered a sizeable amount of the drug, making him a higher level distributor.
“We’re dealing with ounce-level dealers. It shows there’s more heroin on the street,” Shuff said. “We identify certain drugs as being more dangerous or a greater threat and heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine get extra attention because they’re more dangerous.”
Parish District Attorney Joel Chaisson said he’s seen a significant increase in heroin cases.
“Nationally and locally, there’s been an increase in this becoming the drug of choice for a lot of young people,” he said. “It’s very sad. I believe it has to do with the price being relatively cheap. It’s really devastated a lot of families.”
While heroin is typically measured in ounces, its value makes it largely appealing to those who make and sell it.On the street, Shuff said an ounce of heroin can sell for $1,200.
Maj. Rodney Madere, the Sheriff’s Office’s chief of investigations, said it begins at $200,000 a pound when pure or uncut. As it passes to distributor and dealer, it’s cut (extenders added), typically several times, and that could ultimately make that pound worth more than $600,000.
Federal figures show most of this heroin is crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. and pouring into marketplaces or metropolitan areas like New Orleans, Madere said. It’s coming from Mexico, but also from as deep in South America as Columbia.
With its incredible street value, smugglers are resorting to moving heroin by any means through tunnels, rail and even drones capable of carrying payloads of up to 30 pounds.The rollover effect is the drug works its way from New Orleans into the surrounding parishes, as well as the crimes associated with drugs like burglaries, thefts and robberies committed to support drug habits, Madere said. They have seen the crime extend from white-collar crime such as embezzlement and credit card fraud to stabbings and shootings.
“Drugs are not just drugs,” he said. “It has a big outreach and effect in all communities in all other crimes.”Many of these users started on prescription opiates, but Madere said a 2009 crackdown on them pushed many users from doctor or pharmacy shopping for pills to a street hunt for cheap heroin.
This, in turn, has brought on a noticeable increase in the number of overdoses in the parish, which he said is increasingly involving younger people.
With pills, users knew the dosage, but Madere said street-grade heroin can be a deadly guessing game that is contributing to overdoses and potentially death.
A recent drug sting in the parish netted 36 dealers with most of them distributing marijuana and crack cocaine, but only two of them distributing heroin. Madere said heroin dealers operate differently and have to be targeted differently, but both Madere and Shuff declined to say how they do it to avoid tipping them off.
“We take it very seriously,” Madere said. “It affects the entire population.”
Fighting the drug war takes considerable resources that could be used to address other problems, but the two say there’s no choice about the need to police this problem with all the crime committed to support an addict’s habit.
Aimed at deterring the drug on the state level, Louisiana legislators last year passed bills aimed at addressing an alarming surge in heroin use and overdose deaths.
The new law increased the maximum penalty for those convicted of attempting to deal heroin from 50 years to 99 years. It also added a minimum sentence of 10 years with no probation or sentence suspension, up from five years.Chaisson agreed with law enforcement focusing efforts on trying to get use of this drug under control.
“If it doesn’t kill you, it will cause you to end up in jail,” he said.
But even Madere and Shuff agree it is a war they will fight, but one that will likely never be won.
“Unfortunately, you take a dealer off the street and there’s another one right there to take his place,” Madere said.Sheriff Greg Champagne said, while the problem is difficult to gauge, there’s no doubt it is pervasive.
The biggest increase in heroin use probably came in 2013 and fewer people have been dying from overdoses because health care is more knowledgeable about the problem, Champagne said. But he agreed that heroin use is rising again and his office is addressing the problem.
The Sheriff’s Office has responded by arresting key users and dealers, which did lower the parish’s heroin numbers compared to a potential peak in use reported throughout the state in 2012-13. Parish numbers also showed 24 heroin arrests in 2012 compared to 34 in 2013. Champagne’s office also successfully combated heroin use by educating the public about the dangers of using this drug.
But, Champagne added, it’s clear cheap heroin is making a comeback.
As a recent guest speaker for the Virginia Sheriff’s Association, Champagne said they talked about the problem there.
“Everyone is talking about heroin,” he said. “They’re calling it the new plague.”
Shuff added the yearly threat assessment report identifying drugs posing the greatest threat in the nation ranked heroin as No. 1.
Champagne agreed.
“It’s not a St. Charles Parish problem,” he said. “It’s everywhere. It’s a big problem. Indications are it’s up, but it’s way too pervasive for anyone to be comfortable. I don’t see a real good solution in sight real soon.”
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