Pubdate: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC) Copyright: 2006 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation Contact: http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793 Author: Scott Parrott Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) COUNTY TO CREATE ANTI-METH INTERDICTION TEAM RUTHERFORDTON -- The Rutherford County Sheriff's Department plans to launch a highway interdiction team to snatch meth traffickers before the drug reaches the mountains. A $250,000 federal grant would cover the tab for four new deputies, four new cruisers and two drug dogs to patrol the roads that connect the major highways and interstates used as trafficking routes for the highly addictive man-made narcotic. Sheriff C. Philip Byers hopes the team could launch by June, helping curb trafficking of a form of meth called Mexican ice from major cities such as Atlanta. Rutherford County adjoins Henderson and Polk, two other counties hit hard by meth trafficking. "It's going to help all of Western Carolina," Byers said. "It will be a deterrent for the entire (region), and we want to be able to stop meth before it arrives to its destination." Meth struck the mountains with force in the late 1990s. It has since become the top drug problem facing law enforcement. In recent years, rural Rutherford County became a hot spot for homemade meth labs -- deputies seized 34 in 2003, 43 in 2004 and 35 in 2005. The number of meth labs busted by police is dropping in the mountains and across the state. Rutherford County deputies seized four meth labs so far this year, plus 10 dump sites for the toxic chemicals used to make the drug. Some authorities credit a law launched three months ago that restricts the purchase of cold medicines used to make meth. But local law enforcement agents, including Byers, say the labs are fading as trafficking increases and more addicts are buying Mexican ice. Despite fewer meth labs, Rutherford County is seeing more meth addicts and problems than last year because of trafficking, Byers said. So mountain law enforcement agencies are focusing their energy toward tackling the trafficking through tactics such as highway interdiction teams. The Rutherford County team would focus on U.S. Highways 64, 74 and 221, connector routes between big cities and interstates. "We had discovered a lot of the drugs coming into and through Rutherford County were as a result of drug traffickers not wanting to be on the main roads," Byers said. Traffickers avoid the major roadways because larger law enforcement agencies, such as the N.C. Highway Patrol, launched interdiction teams on the interstate. Traffickers started taking secondary routes, including roads through Rutherford County. Byers hopes the interdiction team will tighten the noose. The sheriff plans to testify before a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday in Caldwell County during a hearing called "Appalachian Ice: The Methamphetamine Epidemic in Western North Carolina." U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Gastonia, will be among the elected leaders present. McHenry and U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, helped Byers secure the money for the highway interdiction team. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman