COEUR d’ALENE — Julia Zimny has been selected as the first Special Assistant United States Attorney serving North Idaho, marking a significant expansion of federal drug‑trafficking enforcement along major transportation corridors in the region.

U.S. Attorney Bart Davis and Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Benjamin Allen announced the appointment this month. Davis administered Zimny’s oath of office during a meeting at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Coeur d’Alene, while Allen welcomed her as the first person to hold the newly created position.

“I am pleased to welcome Ms. Zimny into this newly created position,” Davis said. “I am very thankful for the work of the partnership that created and funded this position, which will provide a valuable resource to help address drug trafficking in North Idaho."

The North Idaho Special Assistant U.S. Attorney (SAUSA) position was created through a coalition of local, state and federal partners to combat drug trafficking along the Interstate 90 and U.S. 95 corridors. Law enforcement has long identified those routes as key arteries for narcotics moving through the Inland Northwest.

Participating local governments include Shoshone and Latah counties and the cities of Coeur d’Alene, Kellogg, Lewiston, Mullan, Osburn, Pinehurst, Post Falls, Smelterville, Wallace and Wardner. 

Additional funding for the post comes from the state through Gov. Brad Little’s “Esto Perpetua” initiative and the Oregon‑Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area federal grant program administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Allen said the creation of the position represents a major step in strengthening regional deterrence and shifting the cost of prosecuting major drug cases away from taxpayers.

“By dedicating the resources necessary to detect, investigate and now prosecute those responsible for moving drugs through our communities, we create an environment of deterrence in our region,” Allen said. 

He added that sending cases to federal court shifts incarceration costs from the local government.

Under the SAUSA structure, the Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office technically employs Zimny. But she is assigned full-time to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and will prosecute federal drug cases arising in the participating jurisdictions.

The SAUSA program relies on state and local resources to support a dedicated prosecutor focused on high‑level traffickers rather than low‑level drug users. Similar programs in other parts of Idaho have served as a model for the North Idaho office and demonstrated reductions in local jail and court expenses.

Officials estimate the program will avoid $2.5 million in annual state incarceration costs by housing convicted offenders in the federal prison system rather than in Idaho facilities.

The North Idaho appointment makes Zimny the first prosecutor dedicated exclusively to federal drug‑trafficking cases across the region, an effort officials say underscores a unified stance by local, state and federal authorities against organized drug distribution.