Pubdate: Mon, 20 Feb 2006
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2006 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

ETOWAH AUTHORITIES BREAK UP FAR-REACHING DRUG OPERATION

Officers trying to combat crystal methamphetamine in northeast 
Alabama may not be busting up amateur labs in back rooms or the 
trunks of cars so often now, but they have plenty to do to try to 
stem the flow of the drug from elsewhere.

After a four-month investigation dubbed Operation Crystal Ice, the 
Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit arrested 10 people for alleged 
involvement in the transporting of more than 100 pounds of crystal 
methamphetamine from Mexico and distributing it in Etowah County.

Etowah Sheriff James Hayes said eight of the 10 people arrested were 
in the country illegally. DEU Commander Rob Savage said a large part 
of the operation involved getting the true identities of the people involved.

The numbers involved in the case are frightening. While authorities 
seized 2.5 pounds of crystal meth, more than $12,000, five vehicles 
and more than 10 false identity papers, Hayes said during the past 18 
months, the drug ring brought in more than 100 pounds of crystal ice, 
a pure form of methamphetamine, and distributed it locally.

According to Savage, crystal ice has a wholesale value of $12,000 per 
pound and a street value of $30,000 to $35,000. That means the amount 
of methamphetamine moved through Etowah County and surrounding 
counties during the last 18 months had a wholesale value of $1.2 
million and a street value of between $2 and $3 million.

If successful, trafficking methamphetamine obviously can be a 
lucrative business.

But the aftermath of meth addiction is anything but lucrative. It 
destroys an addict's health, leads to other crimes and, all to often 
ends, with children removed from meth-using or trafficking parents 
and placed in foster care, putting further strain on an already 
strained system.

If there is a happy ending to a story of more than 100 pounds of such 
a destructive drug being sold in and around Etowah County, it is that 
these suspects have been apprehended. There may be 100 pounds of 
crystal methamphetamine sold and used in Etowah and surrounding 
counties in the next 18 months, but drug dealers will have to 
establish a new network to do it.
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