Pubdate: Sat, 12 Mar 2005
Source: Saturday Gazette-Mail, The (WV)
Copyright: 2005 The Charleston Gazette
Contact: http://www.saturdaygazettemail.com/about/contact/
Website: http://www.saturdaygazettemail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3496
Author: Dave Gustafson,  Staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

METRO DRUG UNIT COULD VANISH BY JULY

Proposed Federal Cutbacks Would Slash Task Force'S Budget By Two-Thirds

The task force that shoulders the brunt of methamphetamine lab
cleanups in Kanawha and Putnam counties could be disbanded by July if
the proposed federal budget passes, its deputy director said.

The 18-member Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team could lose
about two-thirds of its budget if its two biggest grants are reduced
or eliminated, Sgt. Steve Walker said.

"The Metro Drug Unit as it's now known won't be around," Walker
said.

The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas and the Justice Assistance
grants provide about $500,000 of MDENT's $600,000 budget for its
Kanawha County operations, Walker said.

If the federal budget is approved as is, the JAG program will be
eliminated and HIDTA grants will be cut 60 percent. That could leave
MDENT with just $70,000 -- an 86 percent cut in its federal funding.

Those grants were saved from being cut in the past two years, but the
situation looks more perilous this year, Walker said.

MDENT's officers would be sent back to municipal police departments
and sheriff's departments in the two counties.

Other drug tasks forces across the state could be in danger as well,
said Norb Federspiel, director of the state Division of Criminal
Justice Services.

The state has 14 multijurisdiction drug task forces. They are usually
made up of law enforcement officers from one or two counties plus a
city and sometimes staff from the State Police or the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms or FBI.

"With the meth problem we're having right now, if these funding cuts
go through, we would lose the ability to fund the [task forces],"
Federspiel said. "The localities would have to pick them up or they
will disappear. It's shocking."

The number of meth labs and dump sites found in West Virginia has
grown from just five in 1999 to 145 in 2004, according to the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration.

MDENT investigated 98 labs or dumpsites in Kanawha and Putnam counties
in 2004 -- more than two-thirds of the state's total, Walker said.

In 2004, MDENT started 346 narcotics investigations that led to 254
people being charged with 364 crimes in federal or circuit court,
Walker said.

MDENT has also seized about a kilo each of cocaine and crack cocaine,
almost 60 grams of meth and more than 63 pounds of marijuana and 1,257
plants, Walker said. Those had a street value of $2.6 million, he said.

"MDENT has been an incredible help to us," said Lt. Sean Crosier of
the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department. "They've taken a major burden
off our department by processing all those labs."

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said if the feds cut
MDENT's funds, the county could use some money from its Public Safety
Grant Committee to keep it going.

"They've done a tremendous job and asked for very little," Carper
said. "People expect a lot from them, and the politicians need to
provide the funding. I probably shouldn't say it, but we've got plenty
of money for Iraq."

Walker said meth labs busts do not provide MDENT property seizures
that can perpetuate the drug unit's funding like marijuana or cocaine
seizures can.

"If we seize a meth user's car or house, we don't want them because
they're hazardous waste," he said.

Federal guidelines require at least five officers to respond to a meth
cleanup, Walker said. Since it costs about $6,000 to train and outfit
just one officer to investigate and clean up a lab, it is cost
prohibitive for smaller municipal departments to handle a lab without
a drug unit's help, he said.

On Thursday, MDENT officers were working three labs simultaneously.
Another two were found on Friday.

"It's draining physically and financially for us," said Walker, adding
that all MDENT officers work 55 or more hours a week. "Officers in the
drug unit are getting kind of gun-shy when their pager goes off. These
guys can't do the bread and butter of the job. None of them come down
here [to work] meth labs."

As of Friday, the MDU had investigated or assisted on 49 labs in
Kanawha County since Jan. 1. The county is on pace for about 250 labs
in 2005, Walker said.

"Before it's over, it's probably going to be a bigger epidemic than
crack cocaine," said Charleston police Chief Brent Webster.

There's no backup plan to handle meth and other drug investigations in
Kanawha and Putnam counties if MDENT is dissolved, Walker said.

A meeting is being arranged with State Police, the state's
Congressional delegation and local law enforcement to discuss a
solution, Walker said.
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