Pubdate: Thu, 31 May 2007 Source: Asheville Citizen-Times (NC) Copyright: 2007 Asheville Citizen-Times Contact: http://www.citizen-times.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/863 Author: Joel Burgess Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) LOCAL LAW AGENCIES REGROUP TO TACKLE DRUGS State, Buncombe Want to Partner With Towns ASHEVILLE -- Without giving a specific incident, Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said it has happened that a law enforcement officer from one department has targeted a drug suspect without knowing another department was also watching the suspect. Preventing that kind of duplication of effort is one argument Duncan and Charles Moody, agent in charge for the Western District of the State Bureau of Investigation, gave Wednesday for forming a new multiagency task force. Another is that towns in the county are not always equipped to deal with street-level drug crime. "They get undercover investigations done in their towns when these reports come in. Most of these small municipalities don't have the resources to do that," Duncan said of the benefits of the new Buncombe County Anti-Crime Task Force at a press conference at the Sheriff's Department. BCAT would take the place of the Metropolitan Enforcement Group, a collaboration of agencies that dealt with higher-level drug crime and which Asheville left more than a year ago. "One of the reasons the Asheville Police Department pulled out of this task force was because of the hue and cry in the community to do something about street-level drugs," the sheriff said. BCAT will work with the city's drug suppression unit, and will concentrate on the county's own "street-level" drug crime outside Asheville, he said. The other locally based collaboration, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, will pick up bigger cases or those that occur outside Buncombe. Organizers hope the county's other towns will participate. So far, Woodfin has signed on and Black Mountain appears interested, Duncan said. Weaverville has not made a decision and Biltmore Forest is set to hear the offer. Towns would contribute $28,424, or half an officer's salary for a total of two new officers. The county has agreed to pay for half an officer if necessary and to pick up full salaries if towns pull out after two years. Full participation would mean 13 officers and one administrator who would make the decision when to deploy the group. Towns would have a seat on the administrative board and access to drug seizure money. BCAT began operating more than six weeks ago with a core group of county and state agents. It has already claimed some successes, including an undercover prostitution sting Thursday at a Bent Creek apartment building and the arrest Friday of Jeffery Paul in West Asheville for possession of a concealed weapon, marijuana and 18 grams of cocaine. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake