“Four states account for half of the nation’s wiretapping activity, according to a new report from the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. Nevada leads the nation in the number of wiretaps when population is factored in, according to the annual list of where federal and state judges have authorized law enforcement to monitor phone communications as part of criminal investigations in 2013.   The report suggests that nearly 90% of the wiretap authorization requests cited criminal drug-related offenses; the rest ranged from smuggling to homicide cases. It found that the wiretaps led to 3,744 persons arrested (about the same as in 2012), and 709 persons convicted of a crime. As Americans adopt cell phones over landlines, 97% of the total 3,576 authorizations specifically target portable devices including cell phones and digital pagers. Federal and state judges authorized a total of 3,455 wiretaps on portable devices in 2013. The total number of reported wiretaps is up 5% from 2012, but it’s more than doubled since a decade ago, when the number of wiretaps authorized was 1,442.  California, New York, Nevada and Florida lead the nation in the number of mobile wiretap authorizations. California dwarfs the rest of the nation with about 26% of the reported authorizations in 2013, more than doubling New York with 12%, and Nevada and Florida trailing with about 6% each.”