The dangers of Wisconsin’s drug epidemic have become increasingly evident over the past decade.

More fatal overdoses. More felony cases involving drug possession. More families split by neglect. And more infections with a risky virus called Hepatitis C.

Yet, there has been no recent increase in arrests of drug dealers statewide, and in fact Wisconsin police are making fewer busts than a decade ago for distributing heroin, meth and other hard drugs, according to a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin analysis of state data.

In interviews, police authorities across the state said arrest numbers might have declined because drug traffickers are getting craftier and because cops are putting more focus on high-level dealers. Others cited staffing shortages or had no explanation.

Attorney General Brad Schimel said that while police go after the major suppliers, he's advocating for more resources to combat drug dealers. Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved hiring four new Department of Justice investigators and setting aside $420,000 in annual funding to boost anti-trafficking efforts.

"It’s not enough (money), but ... we’re going to do a lot of good work with four more experienced drug agents," Schimel said.

Despite a statewide drop in sales and manufacturing arrests over the past decade, Schimel said the volume of drugs seized by agencies is up, although he didn't know of anyone tracking seizure amounts statewide.

"We haven’t taken our foot off the gas on going after drug traffickers," Schimel said. "We’re looking for the guy who is making big money. The middle guys, most of the time those are users that are selling for their own habit. That doesn’t help us solve the drug problem because there’s a million of those."

Arrest statistics aren't a perfect gauge of drug enforcement efforts. They can be influenced by changes in police tactics, state law and community behavior, and some arrests don't get tallied under standardized reporting rules.

But arrests have been one of the most consistent and detailed ways that Wisconsin police agencies track their work. Hundreds of agencies log drug arrest statistics with state authorities every year, providing a wealth of history to weigh emerging trends.

Court statistics, although less historical and less detailed, also buttress USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin's findings. While prosecutors have filed more and more cases involving drug possession in recent years, court statistics show there has been no such increase in charges involving drug sales.

New challenges

Efforts to disrupt drug networks in Wisconsin have gained urgency in recent years with rising availability and abuse of heroin and methamphetamine, and growing concerns over the number of fatal overdoses involving heroin and other opiates, such as fentanyl.

Neither heroin nor meth is new to the state. But authorities in Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, Wausau and other cities said they are facing greater enforcement challenges because of shifts in how the drugs are manufactured and distributed.

Authorities said dealers have become increasingly transient, using cell phones to set up sales in a variety of places rather than at drug houses or historically active street corners.

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Lt. Randy Albert, who supervises a drug task force in central Wisconsin, said that change is in part due to police seizing property used in drug sales.

"A lot of these guys don’t even own homes anymore because they’ve read about homes seized as a result of drug arrests," Albert said. "It is harder to get somebody for the sale for these drugs than it used to be. It isn’t being sold as openly on the street as one might imagine."

The state attorney general said drug users often can't name their suppliers, and dealer phones are swiftly trashed after overdoses or arrests in an effort to block authorities from obtaining evidence through court warrants.

"They figured that out," Schimel said. "The users that we catch, if they wanted to tell us who they bought the drugs from, they can’t. They don’t know. They called this number and they might know the guy’s nickname is ‘Bear.’ Not helpful."

Authorities also said it has become increasingly rare to find local meth manufacturers.

Most meth, like heroin, is now being shipped into the state from large cities or from abroad.

"We aren’t finding many labs anymore," La Crosse police Capt. Jason Melby said.

The number of fatal overdoses is also presenting new challenges to investigators. Aside from killing potential informants, overdoses are forcing police in places like Appleton and Waukesha to divert resources from proactive efforts. In both cities, the annual tally of arrests involving drug sales has dropped to unusual lows.

Authorities in the Wausau region said they have succeeded in taking heroin dealers off the street only to see meth dealers replace them. La Crosse and Eau Claire officials described similar patterns in their communities.

Melby, the La Crosse captain, said his agency might have reported a drop in arrests last year because it can take time for officers to investigate new drug networks after one is removed. The department busted a major operation in November 2015, resulting in 18 arrests, he said.

"The supply disruption is there and trying to figure out who’s bringing (drugs) in after that may take a while," he said. "You can see there’s a demand, and as long as there’s a demand, there’s always going to be someone trying to supply it."

More arrests in Wausau

There are exceptions to the statewide trend.

In Wausau, a crackdown on drugs since 2013 has produced skyrocketing arrest numbers for both possession and sales. In the past three years, Wausau officers have logged about 280 drug arrests excluding marijuana arrests — exceeding the previous nine years combined.

"When we have people dying on a frequent basis from overdoses, that helps us decide what to do to keep our people as safe as possible,” Wausau Police Capt. Matthew Barnes said of the increase in arrests.

RELATED: Wausau area heroin overdose leads to 3 arrests, seized drugs and cash

Whether Wausau's crackdown or arrests elsewhere are curbing drug abuse is harder to gauge. Health and police experts caution that arrests alone aren't a long-term solution. Some communities, seeking to fight drugs beyond a jail cell, have set up special courts for connecting offenders with addiction treatment services.

Barnes said the increased pressure on drugs in Wausau has community support, citing a recent bust of a drug house where neighbors stood on their porches and clapped for police officers.

"That to me is the best measure of success — when the residents who had been usurped are telling us there’s a positive impact," Barnes said.

Albert said Wausau and other smaller cities in Wisconsin are attractive to drug dealers because they often face less competition than in bigger cities and they can sell drugs at higher prices for greater profits. What sells for $10 in Milwaukee, Albert said, might go for $50 or $60 in Wausau.

"We see drug trafficking organizations that see this as a lucrative market," he said. "They just have to get the product here and get a distribution network set up."

Targeting big dealers

In Eau Claire, meth distribution has become so sophisticated in recent years that disrupting local producers isn't putting a dent in the problem anymore, District Attorney Gary King said.

“Those days are really gone," King said. "It’s frankly out of control."

Like other agencies around the state, the Eau Claire Police Department has logged a swift rise in arrests for possession of heroin, meth and other hard drugs in recent years while seeing relatively little change in the number of arrests for drug sales.

Sgt. Andrew Falk, who supervises a local drug task force, said the pattern might stem from discussions with the DA's office four years ago. Police were unhappy that dealers were being allowed to plead to lesser crimes and soon return to the street.

"We used to arrest a lot of small-time dealers, and we would throw dozens and dozens of cases on the desk of our prosecutor," Falk said. "They were disposing of these cases in a way that wasn’t really helping anything."

Police approached King's office with a compromise. Officers would spend more time investigating bigger drug cases with the hope that prosecutors would seek stiffer penalties. Falk said officers have been pleased with the new push so far.

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Drug seizure amounts can be fickle, shifting wildly year to year in the wake of big busts. But last year, the task force Falk oversees seized about 12 pounds of hard drugs, up from an average of 3 pounds annually over the previous three years.

Falk still sees problems in his community, though. It appears that small drug operations are now filling some of the void left after large distribution networks were busted.

The county will be getting help soon. Schimel announced in August that he will appoint a new assistant attorney general to focus on meth cases, and the position will be based in Eau Claire.

Milwaukee police have reported one of the state's biggest declines in arrests for drug sales over the past decade. Milwaukee police said they are focused on "high level, violent" dealers but declined further interviews for this story.

The agency reported about 270 arrests last year involving the sale of drugs excluding marijuana — about five times fewer than Milwaukee officers reported a decade earlier.

ABOUT THE ARREST DATA

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin compiled drug arrest statistics reported by local and state police agencies to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The statistics track arrests involving possession and sales charges, and several categories of drug types. We specifically examined the number of arrests for illegal drugs other than marijuana that were reported each year to isolate how police agencies are responding to drugs involved in a rising number of fatal opiate overdoses and reports of increased meth-related problems. Drug arrest statistics, like other commonly cited police statistics, should be considered a conservative estimate. Under FBI statistical reporting rules, arrests involving multiple charges are reported under only the most serious charge. For example, an arrest involving a felony burglary charge and a misdemeanor drug charge would be counted as a burglary arrest.