Pubdate: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2011 The Arizona Republic Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: Jj Hensley, The Arizona Republic MARICOPA COUNTY SHIFTING METH STRATEGY, TARGETING SMUGGLING There was a time when methamphetamine was the biggest drug menace in Maricopa County and resources against meth use were aligned appropriately. Millions of dollars were spent on public-relations campaigns to highlight the dangers of meth, through televised specials, public-service announcements and those ominous-looking posters depicting a meth user's decline through the years. Although meth use is still a concern in Arizona, the drug's production has declined enough that a county task force charged with eradicating meth has started to concentrate on a new menace: organizations smuggling meth and other drugs through a well-traveled corridor along Interstate 8 to get their cargo from Mexico to locations across the United States. The decline in meth-lab seizures across Arizona has been dramatic, down from 130 incidents in 2004 to five in 2010, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Experts say legislation and law enforcement in the past five years have made it more difficult for cooks to purchase pseudoephedrine and operate large-scale labs in the United States. The drop in Arizona meth-lab activity has not ended the public-health threat that the drug poses: Drug-induced hospital visits linked to amphetamine usage ranked third in the state in 2008, after opiates and cocaine, and law enforcement in Arizona ranked methamphetamine as the greatest drug threat in the state in a 2010 survey. The state remains a distribution hub for meth and other drugs, and although meth-use has fallen in line with the rest of the country, it is still high, both factors that lead investigators to believe meth production could return to the state as quickly as it has fallen. Still, the decrease in lab activity has left the 10-agency task force, which consists of officers from the Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix police departments, along with the state Department of Public Safety and Pinal and Maricopa County sheriff's offices, focusing on trafficking organizations with smuggling routes that begin in Mexico and run through Arizona. "Isn't it easier to go down here and get (drug loads) on the road versus getting them after they've come into town?" asked Lt. Steve Bailey, a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy and task-force commander. The task force uses techniques familiar to urban narcotics officers and fans of police-crime dramas, including wiretaps, undercover informants and sting operations. But the officers use those techniques along an area 45 minutes south of the Valley that stretches from Gila Bend to Casa Grande and requires equipment, including camouflage fatigues and night-vision goggles, more familiar to fans of war films. The foe for the former meth-task-force officers has changed from simple meth cooks to sophisticated drug-trafficking organizations that have installed their own radio transponders in southern Arizona mountain ranges and use solar-powered radios to stay connected in the desert for days. "Those are M4s (military rifles), and they're every bit as capable as our guns," Bailey said, looking through evidence photos from recent drug seizures. "Sometimes, you don't see that many guns (in the Valley) in a month." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.