Highway patrol troopers in Montana and Wyoming are making drug busts daily, but the numbers are much higher in Montana.
In fact, the Montana Highway Patrol is stepping up recruiting efforts as it faces trooper shortages and major increases in drug trafficking across the state, even asking lawmakers for an increased budget to hire more bodies.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said to the state legislature: “Simply put, we cannot keep policing in Montana like it’s still 1995.”
If you’ve lived in Montana long, you know things have changed, and new problems are moving through the state.
"The amount of fentanyl that our troopers are interdicting off the roadways today is astronomical," said Sgt. Jay Nelson of the Montana Highway Patrol. "We’re seeing cartel associates in our state."
That has Montana's top law enforcement officer taking action, calling for an increased budget to hire five more highway patrol troopers, with a focus on drug interdiction.
“We see an ever-increasing rate of crime in our cities from small to big,” said Nelson.
A small snapshot of what Montana Highway Patrol seized recently includes 78 pounds of meth seized in Stillwater County headed from Las Vegas to Billings and North Dakota; Meth, mushrooms, marijuana, and guns headed to Big Timber, and 90 pounds of illegal drugs in a cloned rig meant to look like a commercial vehicle branded as “Liberty Travel.” Officials said it was part of an elaborate drug smuggling scheme with ties to the Mexican cartel.
“Last year alone in the first half of the year we had already exceeded all the fentanyl we’d ever seized in one half of the year. What they are telling me now is 2023 is going to beat last year’s numbers. That's scary,” said Nelson.
In the first half of 2022, Montana seized 25,918 fentanyl pills. That’s up from 4,556 in 2020 when fentanyl first came on the scene, but it’s a stark contrast to numbers one state away in Wyoming, where just 425 pills were seized in 2022.
So why the huge difference?
The Wyoming Highway Patrol says it’s all connected to a major staffing shortage. The agency is down 52 troopers, meaning only 75 percent of jobs are filled.
RELATED: Wyoming boosting pay to attract new patrol troopers
In Montana, the highway patrol is down 16 troopers and is 94 percent staffed.
“Our job is not easy, but we’re looking for talented, dedicated individuals who want to make a difference in our community,” said Sgt. Jeremy Beck of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Wyoming's extreme winter weather is also to blame, sending troopers from one crash to the next, responding to 1,000 stranded motorists calls in the span of about one week and leaving little time for pro-active drug busts.
