When the 109th Congress reconvenes next week, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell plans to introduce a bill asking the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a national study on the criminal connections between identity theft and methamphetamine use.

Cantwell, D-Wash., has spent a chunk of her spring district-work period speaking to state law-enforcement officials and reporters about the relationship between ID theft — the country's fastest-growing crime — and the eastward expansion of meth, a highly addictive and environmentally toxic drug that, until recently, was a problem most acute in Western states.

Flanked by deputy prosecutors, the King County sheriff and the new chief of the State Patrol, Cantwell said that even though there's a general understanding in police agencies about the links between meth and ID theft, "what there's not an understanding about is what to do about it."

"If you're only attacking meth use, you're only attacking half the problem," Cantwell said yesterday at a news conference held in King County Sheriff Sue Rahr's office.

Cantwell held a similar news conference in Spokane on Monday, and today she is to deliver the same message in Vancouver, Wash.

According to statistics from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Washington ranked eighth in the country for its number of identity thefts last year, up from 10th place in 2003. The FTC rankings are based on the number of victims per 100,000 people.

As for meth, it is now the most common substance seized by Washington law-enforcement agencies, representing nearly 48 percent of all drug seizures in the state, according to numbers compiled by the State Patrol.

"Washington is No. 3 in the country for [its number of] meth labs and dump sites; and in Washington, Pierce County is No. 1," said Pierce County deputy prosecutor Mark Lindquist. Up to 90 percent of identity-theft suspects in Pierce County have previous methamphetamine charges, he said.

Even as law-enforcement agencies here have cracked down on meth manufacturers, there is no shortage of the drug that is now being smuggled into Washington from Mexico and Southwest states, said State Patrol Chief John Batiste.

Meth users are often on the bottom rungs of organized-crime organizations, Rahr said. They break into cars or houses to steal driver's licenses, credit cards or blank checks — items that become "currency they can trade for drugs."

"It's easier to get money from banks" then from robberies, for instance, and stealing identities allows crooks "a much quicker turnaround on [their] fraud," she said.

Criminals also get a head start on the law, since it can take weeks or months for a victim to realize his or her identity has been stolen, Rahr said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com