Mom’s Large-Scale Drug Operation Fed Son’s Heroin Habit: Police

WASHINGTON COUNTY, WI — A 57-year-old Wisconsin woman has been charged with running a large-scale heroin and opiate ring to supply her son’s drug addiction for at least a decade, according to a criminal complaint filed in Washington County. Lori Merget, her son and six others each face charges of conspiracy to sell heroin and other narcotics, or possessing with the intent to deliver the drugs in a 21-page criminal addiction.

Authorities said Merget and Steve Duncan, 55, who lives at her Columbus Park home, obtained about 450 oxycodone pills a month through prescriptions from two Milwaukee pain clinics, but also heroin from street dealers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The street drugs were obtained by runners in almost daily trips to Milwaukee, according to the criminal complaint.

Besides Merget, her son and Duncan, others charged were family members Andrew J. Simons, 33, of Cambellsport, Lori Merget’s nephew, and her sister, Julie Ann Hansen, 46, of Hartford; John M. Plzak, 30, Katelyn Spring, 23, and Rachel Kreif, 25, all of Kewaskum.

The drug charges followed an investigation by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal investigation and the Washington County Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Enforcement group. Investigators began a surveillance operation at Merget’s home in November, tracked phone calls and used GPS monitors on some of the group’s vehicles. Informants were also used in controlled buys, according to the complaint

Merget dealt the drugs from her purse and from her kitchen table, but her runners also made deliveries to some of the more frequent customers. The operation has been described as one of the largest

When William Merget was arrested on an active warrant on March 13, he had a bag of heroin hidden in his belly button, according to the complaint. It also said that one of the defendants swallowed $140 worth heroin during a traffic stop after a trip to Milwaukee to buy drugs.

» For more on this story, go the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Photo by Lauri Rantala via Flickr Commons