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ROBBINSVILLE: Police respond to spike in drug-related arrests

Recent arrests highlight trend of drug peddling through suburbia

by Amy Batista, Special Writer
ROBBINSVILLE — Township officers are working to keep drugs out of Robbinsville, and those who come through the town are being warned.
   ”We are a proactive police department,” Patrolman Scott Kivet said. “All these people that have these drugs and burglary history and criminal history, the word is going to be out there to stay out of Robbinsville.”
   Patrolman Kivet said the recent increase in drug-related offenses primarily involves people travelling through the township, not Robbinsville residents.
   ”The people of Robbinsville are good people, and there’s not really much of a drug problem,” Patrolman Kivet said. “The problems that we have in this is the transient traffic — the highways. Ultimately, the town is a good town.”
   Major highways and county roads — I-195 and routes 130, 33 and 539 — all run through Robbinsville.
   ”Believe it or not, Route 539 has a lot of drugs on it,” he said.
   According to Patrolman Kivet, if people come into this town with the intent to burglarize or sell drugs, they will be arrested.
   ”My job is to stop drugs from point A before they get to point B,” he said, noting this type of prevention is known as “drug interdiction.”
   ”We are stopping them from getting into our town. We stop it going to Ocean and Monmouth County, East Windsor, Monroe, Manalapan,” he said, adding Howell, Manalapan, Jackson and Manchester are areas with substantially increasing drug issues.
   ”It’s out there,” Patrolman Kivet said. “It’s bad.”
   A major reason for the recent trend is drugs like heroin are cheaper in areas such as Trenton.
   According to Patrolman Kivet, a bag of heroin can cost twice as much if purchased elsewhere such as Ocean County.
   ”So what is happening is they are picking up all this heroin in Trenton cheap and selling it in Ocean and Monmouth County,” Patrolman Kivet explained, adding officials in those counties have considered the matter an “outbreak” due to increased overdoses.
   ”Ocean County last month had 60 people alone die from a heroin overdose,” Patrolman Kivet said.
   The prospects of drugs being brought through the community is supported by recent arrests, according to Lt. Mike Polaski of the township Police Department.
   ”We do seem to come into contact with a lot of residents from Ocean and Monmouth County,” Lt. Polaski said in a email.
   ”This is not surprising since the state, county and local roads come from the shore area, through Robbinsville and on to Trenton,” Lt. Polaski wrote, adding police have not observed increased drug-related arrests among township residents.
   To date in 2013, patrolmen Kivet and Adrian Markowski have made 58 and 19 narcotic-related arrests respectively. There have been 103 narcotics-related arrests to date department-wide.
   ”The majority of those arrests are for marijuana and heroin,” Lt. Polaski said. “We have some arrests for prescription pills and a few arrests for cocaine.”
   There were 132 narcotics-related arrests in all of 2012 with nearly all of the narcotics arrests resulting from traffic stops.
   ”Clearly, we are seeing a drastic increase, but much of that can be contributed to two things,” Lt. Polaski said. “One (is that) Patrolman Kivet is able to focus much of his patrol time on narcotics enforcement. There has also been an increase in training added with gained experience with each arrest. All of the officers do a great job with this type of enforcement, however, Patrolman Kivet and Patrolman Markowski are seeing a tremendous amount of success in their narcotic-related enforcements on traffic stops.”
   Another economic issue factors into the apparent increase of drug traffic out of Trenton — police layoffs.
   ”The concept right now is, unfortunately, Trenton, with all the layoffs of their police officers, are robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Patrolman Kivet said. “They are going call to call to call. They can’t be proactive; they can only be reactive.”
   Recent arrests in June and July in Robbinsville highlight the increase in drug-related arrests.
   In one incident, Patrolman Kivet discovered nearly 200 bags of individually packaged heroin during a motor vehicle stop. The three subjects were charged with distribution and turned over to Ocean County authorities on warrants for burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and narcotics.
   Patrolman Thomas Egan stopped a car with approximately 4 ounces of cocaine worth several thousand dollars. The subject was charged with distribution of cocaine.
   Similar incidents occurred in July. In one such instance, Patrolman Kivet stopped a car where almost 100 individually packaged bags of heroin were recovered. Both accused had outstanding warrants, one for burglary and one for distribution of narcotics out of Essex County.
   ”In some instances, we are also charging with DWI for operating under the influence of narcotics,” Lt. Polaski said. “Between 80 to 90 percent of the people I lock up have burglary and theft charges.”
   According to Patrolman Kivet, the people typically being locked up have “serious histories” for burglary, theft and narcotics offenses, including nationwide burglary warrants and statewide warrants for narcotic distribution, which he has come across during these traffic stops.
   ”That’s what heroin does,” Patrolman Kivet said. “They’re desperate.”
   To address narcotics offenses, three officers. including Patrolman Kivet, Patrolman Wayne Haugh and Sgt. William Swanhart, are certified drug recognition experts.
   ”I’m state police-certified,” he said. “Under 1 percent of the cops in the nation are drug recognition experts.”
   An officer must apply for the program and get accepted to this program, according to Patrolman Kivet.
   The State Police, Trooper Michael Leip and Patrolman Frank Marchione with his K-9 partner, Niko, of the Hightstown Police Department, will assist Patrolman Kivet when needed when it comes to hidden compartments in a vehicle.
   ”I can get a K-9 to do an exterior sniff, and these dogs are awesome,” said Patrolman Kivet, who works a modified schedule that gives him the time to focus on narcotics.
   Patrolman Kivet said it also helps the administration is supportive of their police.
   ”Our administration, the mayor and the council, have our back,” he said.