James* felt only mild anxiety as he waited patiently for his class to end. Somewhere close, his customer was waiting. James had been selling drugs for two years. Profit grew exponentially as his demographic expanded and he sold to new faces. The teacher rambled and James drifted off. He jolted up, however, as the door to the hall opened and a police officer approached him. With but a few words, the officer handcuffed James and escorted him firmly out of the room. James hung his head. He knew what was coming.

Narcs, or narcotics agents, are a significant deterrent to drug trafficking in schools. James is an archetype of multiple drug related busts in local and high schools. These drug busts are staged over a long period of time, and are targeted at students repetitively dealing and distributing all kinds of drugs in schools and local communities. Officers have picked up drugs including marijuana, heroine, cocaine, meth, ecstacy, and prescription medications, but generally find drugs that are lower on the drug harm scale. Narcotics agents identify drug sellers as high, medium, or low profile suspects, and target them in that order. James was a low profile suspect.

The sting operation involved in a drug bust takes planning and polished execution, but has been successful in obtaining many pounds of narcotics recently. Undercover officers dress as students and take on extended roles as high school purchasers. Throughout the year, they buy various amounts of drugs from sources they receive through word-of-mouth. The typical culmination, after many months, is a full raid through the school and apprehension of all suspects.

Earlier this year, Redmond police completed a seven-month undercover operation as they arrested and charged 11 teenage students within the school walls. Redmond police spokesperson Jim Bove and others involved call this a “wake up call” for the community. “We hope this makes an impact of getting [drugs] out of our schools and city,” says Bove.
The New Milford school district, near Cincinnati, conducted its own drug bust. It paid a private investigator $60,000 to go undercover and act as a high school kid buying drugs. The investigation was so secretive that the principal at the school was not told about the operation until a week before the bust. This and the Redmond drug bust are typical examples of events occurring across the country.

Drug busts in schools are not a new method, either. In 1985, an ABC afternoon special titled “High School Narc” featured a 22-year-old police officer posing as a student in order to find the identity of a drug-supplier at a high school. The show seemed to be a warning to distributers everywhere that dealing drugs does not pay. John O’Connor, a writer for the NY times, thinks it might be the opposite. “It’s a lesson for pot-smokers about being wary of amiable strangers looking to buy drugs,” he says.

Garfield students have their own opinions about narcs. Sophomore Madison Hall says, “It’s a violation of our privacy. We’re kids; we should be able to have fun without someone watching over us for drugs.” Many students find the operations invasive because they keep all students in the dark, unknowing.

Former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper has a firm view on the issue of fighting drugs. “The drug war stops real cops from doing real police work,” he says. He believes that instead of focusing on drugs, police should focus their attentions on more dangerous and destructive crimes. He is only one of many drug-war fighters in Seattle.

Narcotics agents tend to be touchy subject. When asked about them, Officer Benny Radford declined to comment, stating simply, “Nobody wants to talk about narcs.” All areas of narcotics operations generally are tender and rely on complete secrecy. In fact, if the operation is successful, the narc’s identity should remain a secret to all but those involved.
The strange thing was James didn’t know how it happened. One minute he was selling and life was good, and the next he was preparing to face a judge. He never even have had any idea that one of his buyers was a narc. The idea made him shiver; he had always felt security in the people he surrounded himself with. He thought about it as he fumbled with the cold metal around his wrists.

*Name changed to protect anonymity.