WALLACE – History was made on Tuesday afternoon when the Shoshone County Commissioners approved two agreements that will create the first Special Assistant United States Attorney (SAUSA) Office in North Idaho.  

The agreements or memorandums of understanding (MOU), signified a partnership between Shoshone County and several other communities that will make up the North Idaho SAUSA Initiative, and the other MOU is the partnership between that group and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Under this agreement, Shoshone County will act as the host county for the initiative, handling all the administrative work for the new office, including managing payroll and benefits for the position.  

Former Kootenai County prosecutor and Idaho legislator Luke Malek, along with U.S. Attorney Joshua Hurwit, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Whatcott met with the commissioners to discuss the benefits of creating such an office.  

They explained how the first SAUSA office in Idaho was created in 2006 in Boise’s Treasure Valley with a focus on gang crimes, the next office was opened a decade later in the Eastern Idaho region with the key focus of drug trafficking between Utah and Montana.  

In North Idaho, the I-90 corridor through Shoshone and Kootenai County, as well as U.S. Highway 95 from Lewiston and north to Interstate 90, will serve as the primary area of concern for the new SAUSA office, which has been created to combat drug trafficking crimes throughout the region.  

“It’s a problem that’s landed in your community, but it’s not your problem,” Hurwit said.    

Drug trafficking crime rates are steadily climbing, putting a strain on local prosecutors and taxpayers. Under the new office, these offenses would be tried in Federal Court, where the burden of time and cost would shift from the local level to the Federal level. Freeing up county and city officials’ time, and resources.  

“This program provides such a significant benefit to the State by taking people out of our state who have come to our state to do our citizens harm,” Whatcott said.  

Idaho Governor Brad Little has been vocal in support of combating drug trafficking, specifically fentanyl, throughout the State. But he hasn’t limited those efforts to just fentanyl but also combating the trafficking of drugs like methamphetamine and heroin in recent years.  

Whatcott has ties to North Idaho and grew up in Post Falls, explained how this project became very personal for him over the years and he’s excited to see it come to fruition. 

“I think you know the good that can be done with this program for the State, and to take the burden off of the locals when it’s not really their burden to bear because it’s not your people doing this,” Whatcott said. “It’s people from outside of your county, outside of our state, and, frankly, it’s people from outside of our country – That’s where these drugs are coming from.”  

The successes enjoyed by the SAUSA Offices in Eastern Idaho and the Treasure Valley really paved the way for the new North Idaho Office, which is being funded through a combination of Federal grant dollars, the Governor’s Office, and the North Idaho SAUSA Initiative. According to Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Allen, the total annual cost for the SAUSA will be right around $135,000 – The cost split will look like $50,000 in Federal grants, $70,000 from the Governor, and the remaining $15,000 divided amongst the members of the initiative.  

Allen anticipates that the SAUSA will prosecute roughly 30 cases per year, which, when compared to a similar case load from Treasure Valley, came with a cost of roughly $2.5 million. According to Allen, those costs will now shift from the local taxpayers to Federal taxpayers. 

Whatcott explained further that the SAUSA’s goal isn’t to catch the smaller fishes, but instead will be focusing on whales as they make their way through the area.  

“We don’t take user amounts, we don’t prosecute possession,” Whatcott said. “We prosecute traffickers.”  

Other benefits of the new office surround how these crimes are punished. Unlike State punishments, which can take a 10-year sentence and divide it up into determinate and indeterminate years, according to Whatcott, if you get a 10-year Federal sentence, you’re serving 10 years.  

The people committing these crimes are also removed from the community. Serving their sentences in Federal prisons instead of Idaho Department of Corrections facilities.  

“I’m pretty excited about this,” Commissioner Jeff Zimmerman said.  

Malek was complimentary of Allen’s work on getting this project off the ground and taking an active role in the administration of the new office.  

“He has been able to take the lead on this,” Malek said of Allen. “The fact that we can have this person housed in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, but as an employee of Shoshone County is a huge step in making this happen. And a lot of that is due to his (Allen) leadership and the communications that he’s had, not only with you (the commissioners), but municipalities throughout Northern Idaho.”  

Now that the MOU’s have been signed, the State and North Idaho SAUSA Initiative will wait until President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office determines the direction it wants to go for hiring the new SAUSA.