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THE AMPHETAMINE-IDENTITY THEFT CONNECTION
How does a driver's license stolen from a St. Louis, Missouri, man end up in a cheap motel room hundreds of miles away? That's a question that initially baffled investigators when they found the ID in the Merriam, Kansas, flophouse.
But it didn't take long for police to solve the mystery once they learned the motel room doubled as an identity theft laboratory -- filled with computers, scanners, printers, and dozens of stolen ID's -- and the masterminds behind the operation were methamphetamine addicts.
"There's a close link between methamphetamine use and identity theft," says Prosecutor Vanessa Riebli, head of the Johnson County, Kansas, District Attorney's Economic Crime Unit. "ID's are traded or sold for drugs across the country, and drug users are supporting their habit with identity theft."
Learn more about how identity theft is financing the methamphetamine trade -- and what you can do to protect yourself in this week's cover story: The Amphetamine Connection: How Meth is Driving the Identity Theft Pandemic.
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