Salt Lake Valley sting nabs Utah County drug buyers

SANDY — An effort to crack down on Utah County juveniles and young adults who travel into the south end of Salt Lake County to buy drugs resulted in more than three dozen arrests during a recent sting.

During November, narcotics officers from the Sandy and West Jordan police departments and the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force picked six days at random to do an intensive sweep of street-level drug dealers and buyers.

During that time, 39 men and women, mostly low-level drug dealers, were arrested, and officers seized heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, two guns, several vehicles and an undisclosed amount of cash, said Sandy Police Sgt. Troy Arnold.

The operation was sparked by a trend that had caught the attention of officers: Many of the people arrested in buying drugs in the south end of the valley were 17- to 23-year-old Caucasian men and women driving up from Utah County.

The investigation was a continuation of a bust in 2008, when police arrested six people in connection with a cocaine and heroin distribution ring. At that time, detectives said 80 percent of the group's clients were young adults from south of Salt Lake County.

"We started discovering a lot of buyers in the parking lots were kids out of Utah County," Arnold said.

During November's sting, undercover officers posed as buyers to lure dealers. Detectives scoped out parking lots, looking for vehicles parked away from any other vehicles, with young people inside, looking like they were waiting for someone.

What investigators discovered was that, for an unknown reason, most of the street-level drug dealers in Salt Lake County refused to travel into Utah County, forcing buyers instead to travel north to West Jordan or Sandy. A group of drug buyers would typically pool their money in the morning and send one or two people to purchase a large amount of drugs for several people, Arnold said.

The drug deals were done in broad daylight, out in the open, he said.

"They were almost to the point of being flippant about it," he said. "In a matter of less than a minute, a transaction would occur."

During one arrest, a suspected drug dealer attempted to run over an undercover detective and rammed a police vehicle while trying to flee, Arnold said.

He said he did not believe the drug problem in Utah County was any worse than other areas. The uniqueness of this operation, he said, was the fact that so many young adults and juveniles were traveling from Utah County into Salt Lake County to buy drugs.

"We were able to send a message to the Utah County kids. These guys who enforce the trade aren't afraid to follow you into Salt Lake County if they have to," Arnold said.

Most of the people arrested for investigation of drug dealing also faced possible deportation for being illegal immigrants, he said.

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