Police believe there are at least 10 major groups currently working in the Salt Lake Valley selling cocaine and heroin.

While meth was the top drug police were combating in the '90s, the Sandy narcotics officer says coke and heroin have made a strong comeback over the past three years. But what's different this time is how young the people are who are buying it, he said. One reason is the price of heroin has significantly dropped. Buyers can get heroin for $10 or $15 while the same amount of meth would cost $25 or $30.

Another question is why Utah County?

Narcotics investigators believe even though drug dealers get a lot of Utah County business, they haven't set up permanent operations there. One theory from investigators is drug dealers fear they would stick out more in the smaller, tight-knit communities. Another is that they sell so many drugs, they need to be closer to their source to restock. Either way, it didn't seem to affect business and Utah County users were willing to drive to Salt Lake County to get their drugs, according to investigators.

On Monday, police from Sandy, West Jordan, Taylorsville, Midvale, Salt Lake County and the state served search warrants on two houses and an apartment in West Valley City and on several vehicles. They seized more than 1,000 balloons filled with coke and heroin, fake IDs, a rifle and several thousand dollars in cash. Six people were booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of various drug distribution charges, possession of fake government documents and possession of a firearm by a restricted person.

Those arrests were in addition to numerous arrests of "waiters." After a waiter was arrested, undercover officers were able to work backwards and move up the chain of command to find the source of the drugs. Additional arrests were pending Wednesday.

Investigators say it will be a couple of weeks, when they see whether the price of heroin will shoot up or not, before they will be able to tell how big an impact their operation had.

"We have put an impact on the coke and heroin industry for a short time," one detective said.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com