Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2006
Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC)
Copyright: 2006 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation
Contact:  http://www.hendersonvillenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793
Author: John Harbin

  METH: HENDERSON AMONG HARDEST HIT

Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement Officials Met Thursday In 
Henderson County to Discuss the Damaging Effects of Methamphetamine 
Abuse on Communities As Part of National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.

U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Gretchen 
Shappert joined Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special 
Agent in Charge John Emerson, Henderson County Sheriff-elect Rick 
Davis and Caldwell County Sheriff Gary Clark on Thursday morning for 
a news conference held at the Henderson County Courthouse as part of 
the U.S. Justice Department's awareness initiative.

Henderson County is one of the hardest-hit areas in Western North 
Carolina by the effects of organizations trafficking in 
methamphetamine smuggled into the area from Mexico, Shappert said.

Shappert announced that with the stabilization of seizures of local 
meth labs in the state in late 2005, the focus of law enforcement and 
federal prosecutors has shifted to the threat posed by Mexican 
traffickers who dominate the meth market in North Carolina.

In 2005, the DEA and the State Bureau of Investigation, working with 
local law enforcement, focused on meth lab conspiracy cases that 
targeted repeat offenders and those who distributed meth, Shappert said.

Federal indictments filed in June and July 2005 charged 28 defendants 
as the result of a yearlong investigation -- code-named "Operation 
Ice-Melt" -- which focused on a meth conspiracy that began in January 
2001 and continued until June of this year and operated in Burke, 
Caldwell , Henderson and Lincoln counties, Shappert said.

In October 2005, five people were indicted in U.S. District Court for 
the Western District of N.C. and alleged to be responsible for at 
least 500 grams of meth distributed in Buncombe and Henderson 
counties. On Nov. 2, Reymundo Rodriguez, 24, of Hendersonville, one 
of the members of this small group, was sentenced to more than 22 
years in federal prison as a result of his conviction on the charges, 
Shappert said.

"It is important for the citizens of Western North Carolina and 
Henderson County to know about the seriousness of the drug crime in 
their community," Shappert said. "It is important for our people to 
be informed of the very hard work of law enforcement coalitions 
working within their communities, too."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine