DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY'S FUNDING IN JEOPARDY

Local drug busters could be shorted $120,000 in funds and the
regional law enforcement agency could be jeopardized if a proposed
federal budget holds up this year, San Benito County Sheriff Curtis
Hill confirmed today.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined statewide drug enforcement agencies
in asking Congress to restore more than $300 million to Justice
Assistance Grant funds slashed from this year's proposed federal budget.

Bob Cooke, special agent in charge of the California Department of
Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in San Jose, said the Unified
Narcotics Enforcement Team would be in jeopardy without the funds.

The team is comprised of agents from local law enforcement
departments and works to catch drug dealers in San Benito County.

UNET and 50 other state agencies like it are on the frontline of
defense against methamphetamine importation from Mexico, Cooke said.

"In California, we are not only the pipeline but the leader in meth,"
Hill said.

Hill, whose office provides some of the funds for UNET and several
deputy agents, said 76 percent of methamphetamine found throughout
the country comes out of California.

State drug agencies were effective in pushing methamphetamine
production south of the U.S.-Mexico border at the beginning of the decade.

But as Mexico ramps up its own combative efforts, Cooke and others
are worried methamphetamine production could creep north again.

Cooke said presence of the Mexican cartels in control of the drug
trade increases violent crimes.

"These guys are dangerous and they're violent," Cooke said. "They're
changing the way they do business."

Methamphetamine users can also be violent, and Cooke, who has worked
in law enforcement since the 1970s, said he has never seen a more
destructive drug.

And here in San Benito County, drugs and gangs go hand in hand, Hill said.

Losing funds for combating drugs would also mean, to a certain
extent, that gangs would go unabated, Hill said.

"I can't have that," Hill said. "I just cannot have that."

Hill added that methamphetamine use is also often linked to
burglaries and identity theft crime.

Specially trained UNET agents are also called into action on a host
of other crimes, Cooke said.

"They really depend on UNET in that county because they don't have a
SWAT team," Cooke said.

Representatives from drug agencies in California will travel to
Washington D.C. in late February to speak with Congress members in
hopes of restoring the funds, Cooke said.

On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger wrote Congress, urging members to restore the funds.

In 2007, California received $33 million from federal grants to
combat drugs. It is projected that the state will receive around $11
million if this year's budget holds, according to the governor's office.

Hill said the funding has decreased every year since 2001.