Pubdate: Sun, 17 Mar 2002
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Copyright: 2002 Indianapolis Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.starnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/210
Author: Kimberly Hefling

MIDWEST IS WAGING UPHILL FIGHT AGAINST METH

Battle Against Trafficking Of The Increasingly Popular, Available Drug
Jams Courts, Costs Taxpayers Millions.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- With tears in her eyes, Denise Quintanilla begged the 
judge to spare her a life sentence in prison.

"You know, this is my life, and I pray that the Lord's guiding you, you 
know. I'm scared," the 33-year-old mother of three told U.S. District Judge 
Farris Mason.

Married to an imprisoned drug lord, Quintanilla was convicted last fall of 
trafficking in methamphetamines, helping to funnel drugs worth $250,000 
from Texas into southern Indiana.

Police say she is just one player in an ever increasing cat-and-mouse game 
between methamphetamine traffickers and authorities in Indiana, Kentucky 
and elsewhere in the Midwest.

In the federal court system in southern Indiana, the number of defendants 
charged with meth trafficking increased from 7percent of the caseload in 
1995 to 28percent in 2000. Elsewhere in the Midwest, meth cases have 
clogged court systems and cost taxpayers millions to clean up discarded 
meth labs.

The problem in Indiana appears concentrated in rural areas, said Tim 
Morrison, an assistant U.S. attorney in southern Indiana.

Indiana State Police helped seize 681 meth labs in 2001, compared with just 
six in 1995, Sgt. Todd Ringle said. In Kentucky, police dismantled six meth 
labs in 1996 and 268 in 2001, State Police said.

"We're fighting an uphill battle," Ringle said. "The numbers continue to 
get higher and higher."

In the Midwest, methamphetamines are distributed about equally by two 
sources, said David Barton, director of the Midwest High Intensity Drug 
Trafficking Area in Kansas City, Mo.

Organized drug rings, most from Mexico, typically import meth produced in 
"super labs" in California or other Western states at a rate of 10 pounds 
or more a day.

The second source is mom-and-pop cookers who buy ingredients -- cold 
medicine and lithium batteries, for example -- at retail stores and produce 
meth in motels, vans and backyard sheds. They often use and sell the drugs.

The lure of drug money tears families like Quintanilla's apart.

Quintanilla -- whose children are 17, 15 and 13 -- was sentenced to life in 
prison. The judge, citing two prior felony drug convictions, said he had no 
choice.

Concluded Barton: "A meth cook not in jail is cooking."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart