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"You may know it as Interstate 91, but some investigators know it as the \"Iron Pipeline.\"Using the WPTZ Mobile App?\u00A0 Tap here for video.\"The I-91 corridor along eastern Vermont is a conduit for drugs that come from Springfield, Mount Holyoke, places like that in Massachusetts that are significant source cities for drugs, and they also end up being significant source cities for guns where people exchange them,\" said U.S. Attorney for Vermont Tristram Coffin.In March, Massachusetts State Police arrested a Vermont woman on Interstate 91 north.\u00A0 They said she was transporting about 1,400 packets of heroin allegedly to sell in Vermont.About two weeks later police stormed an apartment in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and arrested a fugitive from Vermont.\u00A0 They reported finding three loaded guns, cocaine, PCP and thousands of dollars in cash.In February, a drug raid in Hartford, Vermont, turned up 400 bundles of heroin, crack and marijuana.\u00A0 Three of the people charged were from Massachusetts.Police cite more incidents that follow a similar pattern and Vermont lawmakers along the I-91 corridor are concerned.\"And Vermont being a rural state with a very low crime rate and a strong individualist bent has traditionally not had a great deal of gun control and people have been reasonably happy with that.\u00A0 But the idea of us becoming the arsenal of the drug world is disturbing,\" said Sen. Dick McCormack, (D) Windsor County.Federal agents said the problem is a matter of economics between drug addicts and dealers.\u00A0 The demand for heroin has increased in Vermont, but the supply is still relatively low, making heroin much more expensive in Vermont than in southern New England and New York, where the illicit drug supply is rampant and prices are lower.When Vermont addicts can't come up with the money to get what they want, they steal, and they provide something the dealers to the south have a hard time getting -- guns.McCormack said considering the fact that gun shows and private transactions are exempt from background checks, and Vermont addicts have an opportunity to exploit.\"We take great pride in our quality of life here, and we want to protect it.\u00A0 And the introduction of the drug and gun world -- and I'm not talking about good old Vermonters with their rifles out deer hunting,\" McCormack says, \"threatens the quality of life in Vermont.\"The combination of available guns and drug demand, according to authorities, has turned I-91 into that \"Iron Pipeline\"\"We do have people who are identified gang members travelling into Vermont to sell drugs and sometimes trade them for guns,\" said Coffin.Interstate 89 intersects with Interstate 91 in White River Junction, helping connect Vermont with the bigger cities to the south. \u00A0\"With the two interstates that intersect, a lot of the drugs are coming from the Springfield, Massachusetts, other towns in Massachusetts, as well as Hartford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, and they come on up and filter into Vermont,' said Hartford Police Deputy Chief Brad Vail.He said that White River Junction, with the highways and many motels, has become a hub that both individual and bigger drug tracking organizations exploit.\"Within the past five years it's really gotten worse.\u00A0 And hopefully, with all the legislative acts and opiate addiction treatments, maybe we can assist in combating it,\" said Vail.Lawmakers and police say the solution comes in stages like more treatment centers and addiction rehab programs.\u00A0 They also advocate requiring background checks for all gun sales, including those at gun shows and any place else, to help keep guns out of the wrong hands.Still, Coffin and others say don't lose sight of the root of the problem and therefore the focus of the solution -- drug dealers.\"If we can reduce the drug trafficking, we'll also reduce the gun trafficking,\" said Coffin."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.mynbc5.com/article/police-say-dealers-addicts-trading-guns-for-drugs/3316577>