April 03--Police swung by the fast food restaurant just off Interstate 83 one Friday last spring and noticed two men waiting in a parked car.
The restaurant owner had been complaining to police about drug activity just outside the big dining room windows. Hypodermic needles sometimes littered the parking lot. Police made a few undercover drug buys and confirmed the owner's complaints.
Just 300 feet away that Friday, at the local high school, students were getting ready for prom. Some would be grabbing a burger at the restaurant on their way home.
The Lower Allen Twp. cruiser doubled back and saw a third man drive into the lot in a car with Maryland plates. The officer pulled in and the out-of-state car took off. Police searched the other men and found drugs and bundles of money. Kurt Alan Johnson, 26, of the 500 block of 16th Street, New Cumberland, was arrested.
Complaints about drug-dealing in the parking lots of fast-food restaurants, hotels and other, common, highway stop-offs are spurring an increase in police patrols in some midstate communities. Departments along the region's major arteries seem to be getting hit hardest.
"On a regular basis, we're making arrests in parking lots or rooms at some of our hotels. We have been making some arrests in the parking lot of our (fast food restaurant) on North Front Street," said Susquehanna Twp. Police Chief Robert Martin.
It isn't known if the restaurant staff is taking extra precautions. Corporate communications staff for two national chain fast food restaurants didn't answer questions left in multiple messages over two days.
In Middlesex Twp., Cpl. Steve Kingsborough is seeing more evidence that drug dealers are taking advantage of easy off/on highway stops.
"We have a lot of problems with that, especially with the motels," Kingsborough said.
Interstate 81 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike intersect there. Thousands of cars and trucks with out-of-state license plates roll through day and night. It's easy for illegal drug runners to blend in.
Just as restaurants' and motels' closeness to the highway play a role in profits, they inadvertently play a role in the drug-dealing trade.
"They're kind of hidden in plain sight," Martin said. "Nobody's really taking notice of them. They're crowded parking lots. They're open 24 hours."
State police spokeswoman Trooper Michele L. Davis said troopers haven't observed an increase in drug deals in off-highway parking lots. "Drug deals are made everywhere, both public places and private places. It isn't uncommon for us to see them in public places but as far as seeing more of it in public places, per se, we really haven't seen a rise in deals being conducted in public places," Davis said last week.
Lower Allen Chief Frank Williamson said the restaurant where Johnson was arrested is a stone's throw from the I-83 on/off ramps. Dealers can be in and out of town in minutes. "Potentially, if everybody's on time for your deal, less than 5 minutes. You're in and out," Williamson said.
Last week, in a Cumberland County courtroom, Johnson pleaded guilty to the most serious of four drug offenses he was charged with. County Chief Deputy District Attorney Matt Smith said Johnson hopes to be accepted into the county drug treatment court.
One explanation for local parking lot deals may be that the midstate is smack in the middle of four High Density Drug Trafficking Areas -- HIDTA -- identified by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The HIDTAs surround Cumberland and Dauphin counties. They are New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia/Camden, Washington D.C./Baltimore and the Appalachia region of Virginia/North Carolina. Sellers and buyers of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs commonly meet off Interstates 81 and 83 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The state Attorney General's Office this month announced it had dismantled a $2 million-a-year drug distribution ring that transported cocaine from Baltimore to Altoona. It was overseen by a state prison inmate who gave orders through his girlfriend in recorded phone calls between the couple. The DEA, state and local police worked together to bring down the operation. One of the things they confirmed in the process was that the I-83 and Turnpike intersection has become a major crossroads for drug-dealing.
Jeffrey Scott is a Washington, D.C.-based DEA agent and spokesman for the agency. He said DEA doesn't track how many drug transactions take place in parking lots off highway exits. But he said they're common. "I've done dope deals in all kinds of parking lots actually. Fast food parking lots. Mall parking lots. Truck stops," Scott said.
"Vehicles come in and out. Quick stops aren't unusual. People sitting in cars aren't terribly unusual. All of those places are useful for drug transactions," he said.
Scott said it's unlikely that dealers do market-style research to determine the most advantageous stops along the country's smuggling corridors.
"That's a level of self-awareness that doesn't usually happen in these organizations. Don't get me wrong, these guys are smart. They're going to work in places that maximize profit and minimize risk," he said.
But transaction spots usually are chosen by local dealers familiar with the community, Scott said.
Scott said there's no sign of a national uptick in highway exit, parking-lot drug deals.
Martin said it's not clear why his officers have seen a jump in such activity. "(Drug dealers) are just trying something new. If it works once or twice for them, they're going to keep doing it," Martin said.
Until they land on police radar.
Kingsborough said a growing awareness that police are watching -- Middlesex police routinely patrol hotel lots -- may be why drugs and paraphernalia have started to turn up in township hotel rooms.
"Just within the last three to four weeks we have noticed an increase in drugs and paraphernalia which have been left behind and discovered by housekeeping staff," he said. "If they get uncomfortable, they may leave in a hurry."
Williamson said keeping dealers out takes vigilance.
"The minute we pull out, they're back in. Technically, they're businessmen, too, and they're not going to give up their business," Williamson said.
Martin said it doesn't hurt for residents and other travelers to be aware that someone in the illegal drug industry might occupy the next parking spot. "It's good to bring this to light so that folks have an awareness ... take notice to what's going on in every public venue that (dealers) may be at," he said.
"We don't want (the public) taking any action. We want them to be the best witness they can be and call 911," Martin said.
Copyright 2012 - The Patriot-News, Harrisburg, Pa.
