September 21, 2010
By: Carrie Van Brunt
An unusually large number of cars being stolen from the area around Great Falls, Montana, triggered a large-scale investigation by numerous local and regional police forces, according to a report in the Great Falls Tribune.
During a recent six-month period, police told the newspaper that there were 96 auto thefts in the Great Falls area, a considerable gain over the previously measured period's total of 77. Spokespeople for law enforcement also said that the large-scale car theft may have been linked to drug trafficking in Spokane, Washington.
It was not just the unusually high number of thefts that alerted police to the possibility of a larger crime happening, the Tribune said. The fact that very few of the stolen vehicles were being quickly recovered - the norm in such cases - also raised a number of flags.
Washington State Troopers recently raided an auto parts business in Spokane and several other locations in the city, finding parts from a pickup truck said to have been stolen in Great Falls, along with three motorcycles.
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