[B]RATTLEBORO — Some 20 top federal, state and local authorities gathered in this southern gateway town Tuesday to issue a collective warning to drug dealers and distributors responsible for a record number of Vermont overdose deaths this past year.
“We are coming after those who prey on the lives of Vermonters by peddling poison and profiting from addiction,” U.S. Attorney Christina Nolan said. “I promise we will be relentless.”
Police who sparked headlines in February for raiding a Brattleboro drug house between a special needs school and a residence for single mothers have followed up with a series of additional arrests, including a self-described three-day “surge” last week that netted 16 suspects and 1,000 bags of heroin from four other local addresses.
Of Vermont’s 110 overdose deaths in 2018, nearly a quarter were reported in Brattleboro and surrounding Windham County — the closest corner of the state to such Northeast drug hubs as the greater Springfield, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, and New York City areas.
“That is an intolerable number,” Nolan said of the death toll. “It must come down.”
Out-of-state drug dealers and distributors are traveling to Vermont to traffic such opioids as heroin and fentanyl and such psychostimulants as cocaine and methamphetamine because they can charge higher prices here than in larger population centers with more competition.
“If you are on Interstate 91 north headed for Brattleboro or St. Johnsbury or anywhere else in the state with drugs, turn around and go home,” Nolan said at a press conference at the Brattleboro Police Department. “You will be targets of collaborative investigations, criminal charges and stiff penalties. And by that I mean jail time.”
The recent crackdown on dealing has prompted some Windham County users to drive south to purchase drugs.
“We are keenly aware that some Springfield, Massachusetts, dealers have their Vermont customers come down to buy,” Nolan said. “They need to understand that this strategy will not insulate them from prosecution.”
The U.S. attorney noted Vermont authorities recently charged one Bay State dealer for selling at home.
Drugs aren’t Nolan’s only worry. She pointed to recent news reports about a New York City police officer wounded by a .45-caliber handgun traded by a group of Rutlanders for narcotics.
“Far, far too often Vermont guns illegally acquired by Vermont addicts to pay or trade to their dealers for drugs are ending up in crime scenes out of state,” she said. “We have a responsibility to stop the flow.”
Authorities also vowed to seize assets from dealers and absentee landlords who give them space to work.
“We are coming after your blood money,” Nolan said. “We are going to take the goods and the cash when we can that you acquired off the backs of suffering addicts and their families.”
But while officials talked tough generally, they wouldn’t comment on any specific cases under investigation or awaiting trial. Instead, they simply promised more surprise raids and arrests.
“The drug crisis is ravaging every corner of this state, and we’ve got a lot of work to do still,” Nolan said. “We will continue to surge resources to those areas that are hardest hit when you least expect it.”