There’s a new, more efficient way to get at the low level supplier and user of drugs here in Rhode Island. It’s a method that saves money and gets wholesale arrests. And all you need is a warrant to listen in to cell phone calls…
The recent indictment and arrest of eighteen for charges of soliciting the purchase of cocaine give a glimpse into how it works. Over a six-month period, police monitored phone calls between sellers and buyers of cocaine. They intercepted more than a thousand phone calls and identified a dozen of those arrested as customers. Presumably, the other six were suppliers.
With this information in hand, they then got a Grand Jury to issue indictments for criminal solicitation. When defendants were picked up, several had cocaine on them and were charged with possession.
The neat thing about it is how well the method fits into the drug scene. Dealers and customers aren’t meeting face to face except in the traditional crack hand-off – many in the younger generation are phoning orders in for pick-up or delivery. By using their own cell phones to track and trace (along with recording incriminating texts and conversations) you can develop a whole web of activity. It’s the difference between staking out a corner and arresting everyone who buys that day and unearthing a whole network – and the network may be invisible to other policing methods.
The next iteration will be tracking drug activity online. The younger crowd uses email and chat functions to make deals. After all, it’s a modern world. Why not set up something for the week end party in a chat session function that comes pre-packaged with the latest online game? That’s right, you can fight monsters on one screen and hook up on another, all with the same software.
Interestingly, this particular set of arrests was mostly middle aged and spread out as far as Massachusetts. But the technology is the same, texting or not, the police might be listening.
