BILLINGS, Mont. — The booming Bakken oil patch that’s given a major boost to U.S. energy production has emerged as a new front in the fight against drug trafficking.
Organized crime rings are popping up in the Northern Plains, with traffickers sensing opportunity in the thousands of men and women lured there by the hope of a big paycheck.
Law-enforcement officers across the region have teamed up to crack down, netting one of their most significant successes this week — four arrests in North Dakota and a dozen in Montana, all but one on drug charges.
Authorities said Friday that more arrests are in the works as they unveiled an interagency partnership to combat crime in the oil patch. But with drug offenses, violence and property crimes on the upswing, they face an uphill climb to reduce the spiking crime rate.
Police Chief Frank DiFonzo of Sidney, Mont., where a new FBI field office was opened in July, said help from outside agencies was sorely needed. He said his officers were busy simply keeping up with routine police work, and were ill equipped to confront organized crime on their own.
A parallel Bakken-focused effort in North Dakota in July charged 22 people with conspiracy to sell heroin and other drugs on an Indian reservation in the heart of the oil patch. Authorities linked that case to a national drug trafficking ring seeking to make inroads in the Bakken. Purdon said the four arrests this week were part of the same investigation.
In the Montana case, the government alleges that 49-year-old Robert Ferrell Armstrong, aka Dr. Bob, of Moses Lake, Wash., brought in large quantities of methamphetamine from his home state and distributed them in the Bakken and elsewhere in Montana through a network of couriers.
At the time of his arrest, Armstrong was wanted for failing to check in with corrections authorities in Washington state, where he has a history of drug, gun and assault charges, said Washington Corrections spokeswoman Norah West.
Armstrong and several others among the 12 people arrested face federal drug conspiracy charges that carry potential sentences of 10 years to life in prison if they are convicted.
