Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 Source: Ventura County Star (CA) Copyright: 2006 The E.W. Scripps Co. Contact: http://www.staronline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479 Author: Marisa Navarro Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) STATE GIVES GRANT TO FIGHT METH County's $350,000 part of California battle against drug labs, use and related crimes Ventura County is set to receive $350,000 to bolster its efforts to crack down on methamphetamine use and sales, officials said. The Ventura County Combined Agency Task force, a multiagency group that deals with narcotics crimes, will use the money to buy surveillance equipment and fund two new positions. One will be a crime analyst and another will focus on the online sale of drugs, said Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Ron Nelson. "So much of the distribution is happening over the Internet now," Nelson said. The state Office of Emergency Services gave grants totaling $29 million to 40 counties to crack down on meth labs and sales. The neighboring counties of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara each received the same amount of money as Ventura County. San Luis Obispo plans to hire three new deputies for the narcotics suppression team and Santa Barbara will hire two narcotics detectives. As recently as five years ago, when Oxnard Police Sgt. Bob Thomas was making narcotics arrests, the drugs involved were usually cocaine and rock cocaine, he said. Now, the majority of arrests are meth-related. "This stuff is highly addictive," Thomas said. "Anything we can do to try to stop the flow of this drug in the county will help the citizens and young people." Law enforcement officers say drug use often leads to other types of crimes like auto thefts and robberies. From Thomas' experience, meth users tend to be involved in identity-theft crimes. Recently, sheriff's officials said meth addicts likely contributed to the rise in bank robberies in the county. Last year, thieves took money from 16 banks, while so far this year 26 banks have been robbed. Yet the number of drug arrests by the Sheriff's Department is down from 2005. From January to November 2005, deputies made 1,775 arrests of people suspected of being under the influence of drugs. Deputies made 1,604 arrests for the same time period this year. The arrest numbers are based on the sheriff's patrol areas of Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and Camarillo as well as Fillmore, Ojai and unincorporated parts of the county. Nelson said the drop in arrests has more to do with deputies' workload than drug use. "Those arrests tend to be more proactive," Nelson said. "Having worked patrol and made numerous drug-related arrests, the busier you are responding to people's crimes, the less time you have to look for drug problems." The Sheriff's Department has to seek the Board of Supervisors' approval before it accepts the money. Nelson expects the board to vote in upcoming weeks to accept the grant. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake