Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2006
Source: McDowell News, The (NC)
Copyright: 2006 Media General Inc. All Rights Reserved
Contact:  http://www.mcdowellnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1765
Author: Richelle Bailey

METH GETTING THE BOOT

Drug Ops Have Cut Numbers Drastically

Operation Speedflick. Operation Roadrunner. Operation IceMelt. 
Operation Ice and Iron. They're all responsible for taking 
methamphetamine out of homes in McDowell and across the western region.

U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert of the western district of North 
Carolina, joined by agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement 
Administration and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, McDowell 
County sheriff's deputies, Marion police officers and other regional 
law enforcement, held a press conference in Marion Thursday as part 
of the U.S. Justice Department's National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.

McDowell has led the state the last two years in the number of meth 
lab busts, according to SBI statistics.

The purpose of Thursday's event was to generate awareness about the 
damaging effects of meth abuse on individuals, families and American 
communities. Meth is an illegal stimulant drug that has acute toxic 
effects and can produce long-term physiological problems.

In 2005, the DEA and SBI, working with local law enforcement, focused 
on meth lab conspiracy cases which targeted repeat offenders who were 
"cooks" and those involved with them who obtained chemicals and/or 
distributed meth. These law enforcement efforts, combined with new 
state pseudoephedrine legislation that came into effect in January, 
has led to a halt in the growth of clandestine laboratories seized in 
North Carolina for the first time since 1999.

As of Nov. 27, 183 labs had been seized statewide in 2006, compared 
to 300 labs as of Nov. 23, 2005.

The number of labs seized in McDowell County has been stable since 
Aug. 1. "We are here today in McDowell County to highlight law 
enforcement's cooperative efforts locally against those who would 
produce or cook methamphetamine in the western part of North 
Carolina. We also want to warn anyone who would smuggle in or 
distribute imported methamphetamine in our western counties that 
these concentrated law enforcement efforts will continue," Shappert stated.

"We want the hard-working and law-abiding citizens of every diverse 
group of people living in McDowell County and in the western district 
of North Carolina to know the nature of the ongoing work of law 
enforcement and prosecutors and to know how truly wicked 
methamphetamine is to users and to the communities in which they live."

Since 2001, local, state and federal authorities have sent dozens of 
people from McDowell and surrounding counties to federal prison in 
connection with meth conspiracies.

With the recent stabilization of lab seizures, law enforcement and 
federal prosecutors have shifted their focus currently to the threat 
posed by Mexican traffickers who currently dominate the meth market 
in North Carolina, said the U.S. attorney.

Shappert thanked local and regional law enforcement officers for 
their ongoing commitment to battle the meth problem in western North Carolina.
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