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. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex