Understanding the Fentanyl Crisis in North Idaho: Insights from Law Enforcement Experts

Join us for a critical discussion on the escalating fentanyl crisis and its profound impact on North Idaho. We get into the origins, dangers, and increasing prevalence of fentanyl, alongside expert insights from seasoned law enforcement professionals. Learn about the complex web of issues surrounding fentanyl use—from its correlation with other crimes to the daunting challenges faced by those on the front lines.The conversation explores the multifaceted nature of the drug epidemic, touching on the roles of money and politics, the resistance of fentanyl to Narcan, and the alleged involvement of international players in its distribution. Experts share their firsthand experiences, emphasizing the importance of education, compassionate intervention, and robust community involvement in combating this crisis.Key points include the critical role of law enforcement in preventing drug trafficking, the necessity of proactive measures like rehabilitation programs, and the urgent need for community education to prevent addiction. We also discuss the importance of compassionate approaches to help individuals recover and highlights the need for ongoing support and follow-up care.This discussion is essential viewing for anyone interested in understanding the current state of the fentanyl crisis, its impact on communities, and the efforts needed to provide meaningful solutions.If you’re thinking about moving to North Idaho be sure to give us a call, shoot us a text, send us an email, or schedule a Zoom call. We’d love to help you make a smooth move to North Idaho!

The Fentanyl Crisis (00:00.494)
I slip up all the time. How embarrassing. My computer died. I’ve never had that happen before. Like 150 episodes. Yeah, not bad. Performance anxiety. It’s like I get stressed about this. I had one a couple podcasts ago where like the Wi -Fi went out in the building. Just stopped. I happen to look exactly when it happened. I was like, holy crap. So I got it booted back up and like it was like a 10 second chunk that got missed. And I was like,

You are human, bro. It’s stressful, bro. I mean, put these conversations are important. And it’s like, you know, I don’t want to miss something, right? Like, you know, we all want to be performers and whatever we’re doing. And that’s just the nature of it. So I tried. I was like an hour and 20 minutes of being professional. All we did during the break, we were totally in a crap. Yeah. Out of our system. Went around the building. Now we’re back. I don’t remember what we’re talking about. We took a couple of shots. I think you were, you were asking about the gang working. Oh, yeah. Cartel stuff. Yeah. So I went into how down south it’s very different. It’s very apparent.

appear because of what we’ve done and what Idaho’s approach to this stuff is. It’s all cloak and dagger. For example, you’ll see motorcycle groups going around Spokane fully patched up. You don’t see that over here. I know I don’t many of them that are moving and I track many of them. Yeah. And my agency tracks them. However, a lot of them go around unpatched. They don’t want to be seen that type of thing. They will still Coeur d ‘Alene. They’ll do the runs down there. There’s a particular bar downtown. Yeah. Yeah. But they’re not.

Exactly. They’re patched up. Super smart. Is it is it so you’ve got the OMGs? Are we seeing like black and Hispanic gangs up here too? Because they would stick. Honestly, like North Idaho is not racist. Don’t go there. But it is like 98 percent white and they’ll stick out. So and that’s where I’m I like tattoos. Yeah. So to where like if you spot some gang tats coming through on the highway or something, a lot of them would be moving and they still didn’t do much here.

but they’ll a lot of those groups that I’ve seen predominantly when I was doing the interdiction portion was actually pushing property. So they do like raids on malls and stuff in Cali or Spokane or wherever they want to do. And they push all the way across the East as far as their chains work. So we’d find, you know, 10, 15 laptops plus tons of credit cards anyway on and on and on. But the cartel and the pursuit, I’ve gotten quite a few MS -13 guys even. I’ve never seen them stop.

The Fentanyl Crisis (02:26.862)
It’s always in transit. I’ve never seen them and I’m not saying they don’t. There might be one that’s cost conscientious that stops the gas station. Yeah. Costco gas. Yeah. He’s like that Costco pizza. I just discovered Costco pizza. It’s the first time. It’s a slippery slope in the carb world that’ll wreck you bro. So, um, but yeah. And so they don’t stop through or they stay unmarked commonly. And when you, and again, comes back to training our guys ahead of time.

most guys out there don’t even recognize it. In fact, our jails, I had to come up with a system when I was with ISP, but also then with this new county of there’s gang members in our jails all the time. And there’s gang members coming in because they’re traveling through and they’re actually very commonly not getting documented. That’s a huge problem. All the time coming out from New York or working down south or just my general gang knowledge, I’ll spot gang members on the street. I would be willing to bet.

I bet less than 5 % where actually I’d say, Hey, you know, can you let me know if he has any gang ties? Less than 5 % are even in there and they should be. They’ve had a ton of contacts with cops up till now. Right. That’s important info. Cause I was always impressed where I worked, you know, the, the S S O and the PD guys, like they could just call into the dispatch and get that. Yeah. Our, our shit didn’t work like that, dude. As the chippy down there was like, there’s no, there was no database. Like, right.

So you’d always hit up them like, yo, can you run this guy out like, and they run them locally and say, oh, we’ve got multiple contacts and they get so much more information. That’s super important. It’s just an apathy, bro. Like in our community, number one, you don’t want to realize that it’s there. You don’t want to see it as being there. And it hasn’t been a problem historically. So I think from a agency perspective, it’s like, we’re not going to put an emphasis that that’s not a current problem. Yeah. They always then let’s not be corrective. Let’s be preventative because it’s going to be a problem. So why don’t we get in front of it now?

Yeah, sometimes that’s a tough sell. Yeah, that’s a tough sell. And that’s what happened to Spokane. The Spokane guys will tell you that you said you had friends over there. My brother works over major crimes over there. Yeah. And so actually, he makes fun of me for this story still to this day coming out of Albany, right? I lived in like a ghetto neighborhood in Albany, decided on landing here. So I was like, I’m gonna move to Spokane. That’s the smallest I’ll go. Yeah. And I come out to Spokane looking for a house. And I literally found a $60 ,000.

The Fentanyl Crisis (04:46.51)
three story house. I’m like, this is legit. This would cost 450 grand out in Albany. So what I didn’t know, so I brought it to my brother. I’m like, how is this this cheap? This is insane. I’m buying it tomorrow. And he’s like, dude, that’s in felony flats. I was like, what? It was no, no, it was it was next to the jail just west of there. Yeah, then it was a rougher community. So hilliards on the east side. And to me, that was the nicest neighborhood I’d seen. Yeah.

So I’m like, come from New York to here. I’m like, wow, this place is incredible. And so now, though, take it 10 years later, because it wasn’t like that in Spokane back then. But they watched these young groups of kids. And all it takes is a real OMG from somewhere else to come in and take a group of kids that everyone’s downplaying, particularly cops are the worst at this. No, it just caused them trouble. They’re running a group. What did those guys come in within a year? They know how to run a game. Yeah.

And that’s where it starts. So within 10 years, which 10 or 12 years ago I came out here, it is a completely different scene. And now there’s gangs that we’re laughed at. Not even 10 years ago that are committing most of the shootings in Spokane. There are a lot in Spokane and that 100 % infiltrates over here with our youth here that are clicked up with those groups over there. It doesn’t mean they have a foothold or a house over here, but…

that it absolutely has affected our community here. And then we underplay it because they’ll be down playing ball and you’re guys neck the woods. And at that age, they’re proud of what they do. They’re not a street smart. And they’ll literally tell you, oh, yeah, I’m a Rico Suave or whatever. Right. And and then the guys are like, OK, buddy, because we know the Bloods, the Crips, the Latin Kings and so on. And realistically, they should take attention to that. Yeah, right. Well, because.

There are certain things that some of them have to do in order to be initiated into that gang that can cause a lot of problems, not only within your community, but for cops. A lot of times some of those have a violence against law enforcement stipulation in order to be affiliated. Really? Yeah. Hate to say that, but yeah, it’s around. Gang initiation is a very strange thing and I won’t get too far off into that, but they can literally be anything. They’ll just make up a new rule and it’ll be like, well, do a hit and run right now. And they’ll…

The Fentanyl Crisis (07:04.046)
take another car out and then go off. Like it’s really kind of on the fly even sometimes. A lot of times like he said, it’s violence, something like that. I hate hearing that in my community here, but. Well, it’s not as much. It’s just think about where we are geographically, right? You can’t be there. And I grew up in Spokane so I can talk some. Yeah. OK. Because I know what it was, right? And I know what it is now. And I went to school at Lewis Clark, like downtown Spokane. And my family, that was law enforcement in Spokane.

That area has changed so much. Yeah, there’s so much work. It’s just proximity thing. We’re always going to have spillover, right? You can’t be in this part of Idaho next to a state like Washington and not have an inevitable spillover. Overall, we have an amazing, I mean an amazing area to to not have a huge game problem at the moment. More of what I think we’re referencing is like let’s get ahead of it. Let’s prevent it because it is actively trying. Yeah, that’s what’s cool though with. I know you guys run this in your agency too.

Nobody knows their neighborhood or their community better than the people that live in it. I tell people that all the time. Look, you’ve naturally established your own baseline. I know you’re not a trained cop for observing criminal behaviors. You know what’s normal and what’s not. You see something weird in your neighborhood, let us know what’s up. There’s no crime check here. You know what I mean? So hit us up if there’s something weird in your neighborhood. We’ll come out and check it out and trust what you’re seeing is abnormal or irregular for your community. Yeah, that’s important. You guys have hope for the world in North Idaho?

General. I absolutely do. I think I think people go down then take the historical approach. I love history. Take the historical approach of where we were even 100 years ago. This is one of the best eras ever. This is the best era ever to live. So even when you talk about these things, it’s to learn from other mistakes or progress. As much as I hate the word progress. Sometimes it’s the opposite. But

This is the highest morals that I’ve seen in the world historically as an average that we’ve ever had. So I think it’s absolutely amazing, and particularly in Idaho, which is what brought me here, I’m listening to your podcast, what brought you guys here. The community’s incredible. So if the community stays strong and the society stays strong, and again, like you said, call and tell us if you think of drug dealers on the corner. You don’t see that in New York, you don’t see that in.

The Fentanyl Crisis (09:28.014)
Chicago anymore. And if you lose the community working with you, then then yeah, we’re just going to be a force that represents the community. So we’re just going to respond to things. So long story short, absolutely. I think it’s it’s amazing. It’s a great place to live. It’s a great place to raise your kids. I’ve called it the like sanctuary of sanity. It’s like a way. Yeah. And we’ve talked about it on the spot, but it’s like a 20 year throwback, right? Neighbors are still out there. They’re still having barbecues in their front yard and all that. We still believe in personal freedoms.

Sometimes we get frustrated as cops because as part of our interdiction methods, there are certain things we would love to be able to do that they’re allowed to do in other states. But Idaho still holds really strong to personal freedoms. You’ll get that with certain probable cause on traffic stops. Like in California, you can stop for anything, but there’s no teeth in the prosecution. Here it’s the opposite, right? We want people to go out and live their own lives as they see fit, as long as they’re not victimizing other people. Not doing that, bro, do you?

Mm -hmm. Go do your thing. That’s what it’s like in Idaho. So you can kind of go out and whatever it is you’re passionate about, go do that, as long as you’re not victimizing anybody else. I think complacency is what possibly could get us, right? I encourage everyone, if you grow up in one spot, travel. Yes. I’m just going to throw a shout out to Southie Tucson. If you get a second, go down there. Don’t get shot. And you will appreciate Idaho.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, look at all of us sitting here. I say that to young kids all the time. Even when I go teach those classes and my neighbor who’s total studies just getting out of the Marines, he wants to come back and do law enforcement. But I told him at 18, it’s like, man, go figure out what you’re all about. Go live enough places to get enough knowledge to decide where you want to live and raise a family. Yeah. And then that you’ll want to come back to North Idaho and know and know what what’s worth fighting for and what’s not. And that’s important. It took me a long time in life to.

kind of learn those lessons, right? And now I’m like, OK, I know what’s important. And this community is important to me, and it’s worth fighting for. Brothers and sisters out there putting it on the line for a city like Portland or Seattle right now that has no appreciation for it. Man, what community are you fighting for? What culture are you fighting for? What way of life? And there I’d say promote, run for office. That’s the only.

The Fentanyl Crisis (11:49.774)
You can only control your level of influence. I mean, shoot, that’s what got me to promote, you know, in the military too. I didn’t, I had no interest in promoting like promote up, run for office, do something in your community to where you can control a larger faction. Don’t just sit there and be a beat cop for your whole career. If you feel called that you would like to change it. Or if you’re that cop out there that is a hard charger and you cannot do what you want to do in your current community, come here, come here. You will get hired. You can do the job that you signed up for and that’s freaking beautiful.

Some of us got too many skeletons in the closet. You’re already hired. You’re good. Well, shoot, we’re well into it now. Let’s call it. That was good. Thank you guys. Seth, great to meet you. Eric, always a pleasure. Great knowledge, dude. That was phenomenal knowledge. Thank you guys. That was good stuff. So yeah, at that, we’ll catch you on the next one.