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after that. He said it was because of pressure to reduce the federal budget.
• Dave Barton, Midwest HIDTA director, said in an interview that total reductions to crime labs in a seven-state area could be as high as $900,000. The North Dakota lab, which has a yearly budget of about $4.65 million, is slated to receive about $78,000 from the program for 2013.
• Midwest HIDTA typically grants about $800,000 a year to both North and South Dakota to fund crime labs, numerous drug task forces, special prosecutors and other programs.
• Liz Brocker, spokeswoman for the North Dakota attorney general's office, which oversees the crime lab, called the letter from Barton a "what if" scenario and had no further comment. U.S. Attorney Timothy Purdon said the projected cuts come at a "particularly bad time here in North Dakota" because of dramatic increases in drug cases tied to increasing population in western counties.
• The U.S. Department of Justice has recently stationed additional FBI agents in Minot and Bismarck and a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in Bismarck.
• "If the sequester cuts continue into fiscal year 2014, there will likely be more unpaid employee furloughs, including at the Department of Justice," Purdon said. "Unpaid furloughs will mean fewer FBI agents, fewer Border Patrol agents, and fewer federal prosecutors at work every day."
• U.S. District Court statistics show that the total number of federal defendants charged in the southwestern and northwestern regions of North Dakota have grown from 144 in 2010 to 172 in 2011 and 256 in 2012. There have been 205 defendants charged in western North Dakota in the first six months of 2013.
• Purdon cites a number of multi-defendant drug cases as a key reason for this year's increase. A federal judge earlier this month unsealed indictments against 22 people charged with conspiracy to sell heroin and other drugs on a western North Dakota Indian reservation, in an investigation dubbed "Operation Winter's End."
• State crime statistics for 2012 are due out in the next two weeks, Brocker said.
• Barton acknowledged that North Dakota stands out in the region because of the changing landscape. Recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates show that Williston, in the far northwestern corner of the state, is the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country.
• "The increased population is the uniqueness of the Bakken oil field issue," Barton said. "But each one of the geographic regions has a pressing issue we have to deal with, which makes budget cuts -- meat cleaver budget cuts -- very difficult for us."
• Jeff Zent, spokesman for Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, said it's "difficult to comment about something that hasn't happened," but cited the state's commitment

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