BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Homicide numbers in Vermont have risen in recent years to levels not seen since the late ‘90s, and experts say much of the violence is fueled by a drugs-for-guns pipeline that leads to Massachusetts and other urban centers.
Drugs coming to Vermont from out of state have led to a sharp rise in the number of overdoses over the last decade. From as low as 64 in 2014 to nearly 700 from 2021 to 2023. But that’s not the only problem, authorities say violent crime comes with it, and the increase has sparked a call for action from those directly impacted.
“She was always my little sister, still is my little sister,” said Bill Chatlos, who says his sister Christina at a young age was quiet and soft-spoken. “I would say 13 was the magic number. Then, next thing you know, you couldn’t keep her quiet.”
The southern Vermont native had a profound love for animals, especially horses. “Some might have even referred to her as a ‘Horse whisperer,’” Chatlos said. She became a mom in her 20s, but by her 30s, the things she loved most would soon take a back seat to addiction. And despite pleas from her family, she couldn’t stop using.
“I was hoping she would listen to me. And in turn, it was the last conversation I ever had with my sister,” Chatlos said.
January 23, 2024, was a cold winter day in St. Johnsbury. Vermont State Police detectives canvassed the scene at the Cornerstone School where they found Christina Chatlos in the driver’s seat of a car, dead from a gunshot wound
The fatal shooting was Vermont’s first last year. Police say Chatlos came to the school to buy drugs and that an argument led to her murder. Police charged 15-year-old Mohamed Said with second-degree murder.
Police say teens charged with similar crimes are becoming more common in Vermont and that many of those youth are coming from the same areas. Between 2022 and 2024, data shows out of the 74 homicides in Vermont, 28 involved either a suspect or a victim from out of state.
“We’re seeing more violence associated with drug trafficking than I think we did say five or 10 years ago,” said now-former U.S. Attorney for Vermont Nikolas Kerest. He says the violence stems from a long-standing pipeline between Vermont and surrounding states. Narcotics come into Vermont from places like Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts. “The illegal drugs that are being sold in Vermont can fetch a higher price here in Vermont than they do on the street in neighboring states.”
Kerest says that’s due to a high demand for drugs in Vermont. By the time they arrive, he says they’ve changed hands multiple times, and each time the price tag goes up for the buyer. “It’s simple economics — the folks who are trafficking these guns and these drugs know that.”
Authorities say if narcotics aren’t being bought with cash, they’re bought with guns, which then make their way down Interstates 89 and 91, what has become a crime corridor.
“Some of these apartment buildings up here have just been problems for years and years and years,” said Ryan Walsh with the Springfield Police Department in Massachusetts. He took us to several hot spots in the city known for what he says is open-air drug dealing. “It’s pretty clean right now, pretty clear, but come night time this place is packed and there’s a lot of nefarious activity.”
Walsh says Springfield is used as a distribution hub. Drugs like heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl come in from places like Detroit, New York City, Hartford, Connecticut, and elsewhere. “It’s just cyclical. You guys see it too often — someone from Springfield, Massachusetts is up there involved in a homicide or an arrest. What’s this 17, 18, 19-year-old kid doing up in Vermont? They’re not there to visit family. They’re up there for a reason and that reason is to bring guns back to Springfield.”
Transactions like that have been happening for decades, but the guns for drug trade has escalated in recent years. Federal prosecutors in Vermont say they’ve brought more than two dozen cases involving drugs for guns since 2021. Just this month the feds arrested seven gang members out of Connecticut who police say were all involved in the pipeline, including a 28-year-old tied to a shooting in St. Johnsbury over an outstanding drug debt.
“There’s nothing good that’s coming from that transaction,” said Vermont State Police Det. Sgt. Dustin Robinson. He says it’s happening, in part, because guns are easier to get in Vermont — you don’t need to be licensed and you don’t need to register guns. Those firearms are in incredibly high demand in states with stricter firearms laws. It’s a focus of our investigation because those guns are leading to violence.”
Some point to what they say are Vermont’s lax juvenile justice laws that go easy on kids caught carrying. “Oftentimes they’ll go to court — they’re quaffed or forgiven. It’s dismissed immediately on their first charge,” Walsh said.
But who are these young kids? Authorities say they’re taken advantage of by gangs or large-scale dealers to run the drugs to Vermont. “I think we’re also seeing more juveniles involved in — let’s just call them key positions — in these drug trafficking organizations than we might have before,” Kerest said.
“It was very shocking to find out that it was a homicide,” said Bill Chatlos, recalling learning about his sister met her fate. “Somebody had taken her life intentionally.” It’s something he still can’t make sense of one year later.
Reporter Cam Smith: What has that been like over the last year?
Bill Chatlos: “I wonder and always think about who she could have been if I had her back. And that’s a tough one because my saying goodbye was a note in her casket. I wish it could have been different.
Authorities say the solution is addressing the demand for drugs in Vermont with treatment and getting the resources necessary to target the dealers, not the people using. They admit that shutting down the crime corridor won’t be an easy fix.