KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — It’s been a while since we reported that a meth lab had been raided in the area, but it’s not because methamphetamine has gone away, fallen out of fashion or been eradicated by Law Enforcement.
In fact it is an even bigger problem now that the home-cooked version of the drug has largely been replaced by lower priced crystal meth coming from Mexican cartels, according to Kalamazoo Prosecutor Jeff Getting.
Things don’t blow up anymore, but more lives are being burned down by the pernicious addictive drug.
He says it’s overwhelming the criminal justice system. Possession cases have tripled from 200 to over 600, the number of shoplifting and petty theft cases are way up as meth-tweakers try to finance their habit with crime and get caught.
25% of the cases on the court docket are meth related.
The Kalamazoo County Jail has 100 more inmates now than at this time last year. He says a lot of them are women and that’s put an extra strain on the jail, which has had to do a lot of juggling to make room.
Getting says they have busted two sizable meth rings in South West Michigan in the last year, the most recent just last month, but others spring up in their place.
They mail or FedEx the drugs from the border in large sealed plastic bags packed in boxes and deliver it to the hub of a distribution chain spread out over the region.
18 were arrested after it took undercover investigators months to infiltrate the group.
Getting says their budgets and staff have not been increased to handle the additional work load and they are doing the best they can.
