Felony arrests increase
Madison reports more drug cases

by Joshua Giguiere
Scroll Staff

Madison County officials have reported a substantial increase in the number of felony arrests made during 2002, Captain Randy Lewis of the Rexburg Police Department said.

The year 2002 saw 143 felony cases before the Madison County Magistrate, a significant increase from 124 the year before, Lori Lewis of the Madison County Court Clerk’s office said.

Drug cases accounted for most of the felony arrests made in and around Madison County and the number of drug offenders is also on the rise.

“I don’t know if the drug task force is improving, or if drug trafficking is increasing, because every type of drug is here,” Captain Lewis said.

Captain Lewis also reported that the drug task force is currently involved in many sting operations that can require more than a month of involvement with drug dealers in order to make essential controlled buys. Controlled buys allow police to gather important case building evidence for putting felony drug traffickers behinds bars.

The Madison County Jail, which currently has 70 total beds, has 52 inmates, 32 of those being felony arrests.

The Madison County Jail houses inmates from Madison, Teton, Jefferson and Fremont counties, as well as local and state prisoners awaiting trial, Alexi Trani of the Madison County Sherriff’s office said.