New Narcotics Intelligence Center opens in Butler County
The term "game-changer" is thrown around a lot these days.
But top leaders of local law enforcement told us Wednesday it is spot on as a description of a new drug crime investigation unit.
We've agreed to withhold the exact location of it in deference to undercover work that goes on there.
But from Butler County, it will serve this region in finding and gathering evidence from what we carry around with us all the time, our mobile devices.
Not only what you say can be used against you in a court of law, but what you text, post, and record as well.
Getting hold of that kind of evidence is what ONIC, Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center, is all about.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine arrived at the undisclosed location with a roomful of local police chiefs, county prosecutors, sheriffs, and officers Wednesday morning.
The center is the fourth one in the state and the first in this area.
It is where analysts take a deep digital dive, pouring through millions of text messages and Facebook posts, extracting data from cell phones to help prosecutors with drug crimes, which are plentiful.
"Everybody in this room has the same problem," declared Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser. "Eighty five percent of every single case that I have in my office has some element of drug abuse."
Although he said drugs might not be the sole reason for a homicide or a sex abuse case, they remain a factor in an overwhelming majority of crimes.
They walked us through one case in Delaware County which started with a minute detail and led to the middleman in a drug deal recording his attempt to revive an overdose victim.
Her body was found the next day. He has since been convicted in connection with the death.
At one point, investigators said he realized she was unconscious and texted a neighbor, "I hope she's okay in the lot."
The whole mountain range of evidence was laid out chronologically for a successful prosecution.
With 900 law enforcement agencies in the state, exchanging such data is an obvious benefit.
"It's a game-changer," Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones told the room.
"We can all communicate with each other, share data, and that's what this is all about with these crazy times."
According to investigators, the cartels are lacing cocaine, heroin, and marijuana with fentanyl.
They said a kilo of "smack" brings in roughly $80,000 while a kilo of fentanyl is estimated to be worth $1.6 million.
Ben Suver of the Ohio Department of Public Safety said, "It's far more profitable for the cartel to deal in something that's far more deadly to our community."
Smaller departments like Sharonville, Lebanon, and Middletown lack the manpower and means for such a deep digital dive.
They view ONIC as an analytical asset.
Law enforcement leaders said they want to stem the supply of drugs which they say are pouring across the Southern border.
"China claims that they're trying to do something to slow it down," DeWine said.
"But clearly we're not seeing anything slowing down. This is fentanyl, which is so lethal. It's coming in primarily from China. It's going into Mexico. The drug cartels are taking it and mixing it. And that's shipped across our Southern border and comes into Ohio. And we're having to deal with it. Local law enforcement is having to deal with it and it's killing, killing Ohioans."
When asked what he would suggest, the governor referenced what he and the first lady saw when they were at the border a few months ago.
"We looked at the wall that was built during the Trump administration. There is no one going over that wall. I mean, you just look at it," he said with his face and eyes looking upward. "We need to finish building the wall."
With $13 million in state funding over two years, the centers do not need permission from manufacturers to extract data from devices.
They would welcome greater cooperation as it costs money to do the work which is exacting and time-consuming.
Suver, who has been involved in investigations for more than a generation, said the centers are sensitive to privacy concerns.
"We have high standards on how we access that data and we're not just randomly pulling data. We're not tracking people. We're focused on criminal investigations," he said.