Pubdate: Mon, 11 Nov 2002
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Copyright: 2002 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact:  http://home.post-dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418
Author: Bill Bryan

NEW DEA HEAD HERE WILL TACKLE THE METH SCOURGE

By Bill Bryan Of The Post-Dispatch Bill Renton fought machine-gun killings 
by Colombian cocaine dealers in Miami and ruthless violence by the Jamaican 
Posse in Philadelphia. He orchestrated the first federal wiretap 
investigation in Memphis, Tenn., ruining planned assassinations by the Cali 
drug cartel.

Now, the Louisiana native brings his experience to St. Louis to tackle a 
home-grown drug scourge -- methamphetamine.

"It's the most insidious drug there is," says the affable Renton, 50. 
"We've seen cases where meth users don't eat or sleep for days. They forget 
their personal hygiene. They don't change their babies' diapers.

"It eats up their brain cells."

William J. Renton Jr. is the new special agent in charge of the St. Louis 
division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, replacing Joe Corcoran, 
who retired. The job pays $134,000 a year.

Renton gets high marks from a fellow officer who worked with him in Louisiana.

"He's very aggressive, a hard worker. When we did search warrants together, 
we did three or four a night," said Tony Soto, now leader of an anti-drug 
task force for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. "Billy's always got his 
head in his work."

Renton's territory is vast: Missouri, Southern Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, 
Nebraska and South Dakota. He has 124 agents plus more than 100 local 
officers on loan.

"Meth production and use exploded in the mid-1990s, and it hit the 
Heartland very hard," Renton said. While some is brought in from Mexico and 
California, he said, most of the Midwest's supply comes from small labs in 
its back yard.

He calls them "Beavis and Butthead labs."

"The operator of the lab is the primary user of what he produces," Renton 
explained.

"He's usually undereducated and comes from a poor socioeconomic background."

Renton considers meth his top concern, but he vows to continue focusing on 
cocaine, crack cocaine and other drugs. He said that drug use was in slight 
decline nationally.

"Drug law enforcement professionals realize that the No. 1 key to reducing 
the supply is reducing the demand, and education has to begin early, in 
grammar school," he said.

Renton grew up in a New Orleans suburb, and watched marijuana and pills 
make their way into schools. That influenced his decision to go into law 
enforcement.

After high school, Renton used a federal grant to pay for night school at 
Loyola University while he worked as a sheriff's cadet by day. He quickly 
turned to undercover work.

"The detectives were guys in their 40s with fedoras and bald heads," he 
recalls. "They didn't know how to go after 18-year-old drug dealers. They 
had no clue how to get inside that circle."

The 1970s saw Renton graduate at the top of his recruit class, graduate 
from Loyola with a major in sociology, get married and become frustrated at 
the limited jurisdiction of the sheriff's office.

"I admired the DEA because you could follow a trail to LA or overseas," he 
said. "You had a chance to go after the biggest and baddest dope peddlers."

The DEA hired him in 1979. Six months later, he was assigned to Panama 
City, Fla., where Cuban-Americans were shipping in Colombian marijuana by 
the boatload. Violence broke out when Colombians started managing the 
business themselves, at the point of machine guns.

In 1987, Renton was promoted to intelligence group supervisor in 
Philadelphia, where the so-called Jamaican Posse was shooting rivals over 
control of the inner-city drug trade.

Overseeing nearly 50 people there helped Renton hone his supervisory skills.

After a variety of assignments from 1991-95, Renton was transferred to 
Memphis, where he said the local DEA and FBI were feuding. "I was always 
able to get along with people," he explained. "They sent me there to get 
along with the FBI."

Renton was instrumental in conducting the first wiretap investigation in 
Memphis' history. It paid off, as agents overheard phone conversations by 
members of the Cali (Colombia) cartel hit squad called the "Angels of 
Death." Several murders were thwarted, and numerous cartel operatives were 
arrested.

Renton returned to New Orleans as assistant special agent in charge in 
September 1996. In 2000, he won a distinguished service award for 
supervising an investigation into club drug abuse at rave events.

Now, it's on to the Midwest and the challenge of meth. "I'm looking forward 
to it," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Alex