Drug Dealers Import the Wild Life to Parks

When Christopher Cranford came to Old Faithful, it wasn’t as a tourist; it was to make money peddling drugs. And in the heart of the world’s first national park, officials say he found a market.

By park standards, Cranford’s arrest last spring was a big-time bust -- one that investigators say crimped the flow of drugs into Yellowstone. But they know too that there are others like Cranford ready to step in to sell drugs to the mostly young workers who spend their summers at park hot spots, busing tables, selling souvenirs and cleaning guest rooms.

“I think it’s a matter of users drawing suppliers,” said Chris Fors, a Yellowstone special agent. “Service workers create demand.”

Drug use among service workers is one of the many headaches that law enforcement officers in Yellowstone and nearby Grand Teton National Park must deal with. Park officials say drug cases in the park each summer largely involve seasonal workers, many of them young college students on summer break, employed through private concession companies.

And although most arrests are for simple possession charges, park officials and the concession companies that hire the workers take each case seriously, aware that those involved with drugs also are more likely to be involved in other crimes in the park.

“Someone with a significant illegal drug habit is more likely to embezzle and steal from guests’ rooms and cars,” said Brian Smith, supervisory special agent at Yellowstone. “The public has a right to feel that they’re safe.” Employers and park officials tell workers upfront the consequences of drug use -- which range from being fired to facing federal drug charges.

“We’re very aware of the drug situation. But I don’t think we have a problem,” said Clay James, president of Grand Teton Lodge Co., which runs gas stations, shops and other tourist businesses in Grand Teton and has about 1,050 employees by early summer. Drug use is taken seriously and “we respond very quickly if we have a need to do so,” he said.

Park officials say that the concessionaires cooperate in investigations and that other employees often provide tips.

Yellowstone’s leading concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts, declined requests for comment. But on its Web site, the company warns prospective employees that drugs are not tolerated and that employees may be subject to drug tests.

Fors said drug use among workers is not an overwhelming problem in Yellowstone, but it is a persistent one. And busy rangers, whose duties range from directing traffic at “bear jams” to patrolling park boundaries for poachers, may not be able to devote the time some law enforcement agencies can to go after drug sellers and users.

Investigators said Cranford was selling marijuana and other drugs in the park for several years before he was finally arrested in May. He often timed his visits to coincide with employee paydays, officials said.

Found with 93 grams of marijuana, he pleaded guilty to a federal drug distribution charge in December and was sentenced to a year in prison, officials said.

Possession, often of marijuana, comprised the bulk of the 72 drug cases at Yellowstone last year, and the 26 at Grand Teton, officials said. Although officials do not keep a tally of how many of those arrests were of seasonal workers, Fors said they make up the overwhelming number of arrests.

Dennis Burnett, the Park Service’s law administrator, said the type of drug activity that occurs varies with each national park and often depends on its proximity to urban areas.

The situation in Yellowstone and Grand Teton pales, for instance, to the problems faced in California’s Sequoia National Park, where investigators last year found 37 marijuana gardens and makeshift campsites for growers within the park’s boundaries. The campsites contained guns and chemicals.

Investigators at Sequoia believe that tighter security at border crossings with Mexico since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is fueling a trend of growing drugs closer to their markets. Just three marijuana gardens were found in 2001, park spokeswoman Kris Fister said.

At Yosemite National Park, drug cases, including investigations and arrests, have increased 10% to 20% in each of the last five years, said Don Coehlo, deputy chief ranger for law enforcement services. Many cases involve the use of methamphetamine.

What all the parks share, however, is concern about law enforcement staffing because rangers’ workloads are strained already.

“Variety is the beauty of the job, but the work can be dizzying,” said Tim Reid, supervisory ranger at Yellowstone, which has about 50 permanent law enforcement rangers for the roughly 2.2-million-acre park and about 3 million visitors each year.

From 1980 to 2002, more than 60 new units were added to the national park system and others were expanded. Annual visits rose from 300 million people to 430 million. Meanwhile, field staff numbers remained, at best, constant; in many cases, they declined. That caused some campsites to close and backcountry to go unwatched, said Jeff McFarland, executive director of the Assn. of National Park Rangers.

Chief Ranger Bill Holda expects the drug situation at Grand Teton to worsen before it gets better because his staff is so thin. Holda has about 35 law enforcement rangers in the summer. The park gets additional help when needed from state and county agencies.

Fors said officials in Yellowstone are trying to place more emphasis on drug cases with the hope that more vigilance will help drive the problem away. The park is even planning to add a drug-sniffing dog.

“The average visitor thinks this is Fantasyland,” Fors added. “People don’t want to believe it can happen here; they want this to be a safe harbor. But I think criminals may feel like it’s Fantasyland too.”