DRUG TASK FORCES NERVOUSLY WATCH THE MONEY

For years, every time Glasgow police or Valley County deputies made a
drug arrest, the suspect invariably said something like, "Why are you
bothering me, what about Robert Wing?"

"We'd hear from the public, 'Why aren't you doing anything about him,'
" Valley County Undersheriff Vern Buerkle said this week. "We'd been
trying to develop something on him since I joined law enforcement here
in 1975."

Finally, in the early afternoon of April 6, 2005, with the help of the
Big Muddy River Drug Task Force, someone was found to make a
controlled drug buy from the burly Glasgow man.

About 1:30 p.m., an informant walked into the Stockman Bar wearing a
"wire" and purchased a quarter-ounce of marijuana from the 6-foot,
295-pound Wing. A half-hour after the informant left the bar, city,
county and drug task force officers swooped in, made the arrest and
obtained search warrants for Wing's house and vehicles.

The searches yielded $12,000 in cash, 7 pounds of marijuana and 40
grams of methamphetamine. Wing was tried and convicted of seven counts
of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs, criminal possession of
drugs with intent to distribute and possession of dangerous drugs.

The 51-year-old drug dealer is now serving 15 years in Montana State
Prison. His physical description, according to the prison Web site,
notes tattoos from his feet to his chest, including skeletons, skulls
and a buzzard on a tombstone.

"Putting him in jail changed the whole face of drug trafficking in
Valley County," Sheriff Glen Meier said.

The Glasgow Police Department and Valley County Sheriff's Office are
small departments, without a lot of extra time and manpower to put
together major drug investigations.

"One thing the task force brought into this was their experience and
expertise to do this kind of thing," Meier said. "We could probably
have done it if there wasn't a task force, but maybe not as quickly or
as well."

Big Muddy River is not a big task force. There is no full-time drug
agent, but an officer assigned to the unit is usually available when
needed and can muster resources from six northeast Montana counties
included in the task force.

"If the task force goes away, there won't be as much coordinated
effort as we like," Buerkle said. "Traffickers are so mobile."

The possibility that the Big Muddy River Task Force and six others
like it across the state could go away by summer is very real. Federal
appropriations for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants,
which are used to fund anti-drug programs across the country, were
slashed 67 percent in a budget passed by Congress and signed by
President Bush last December.

In Montana, the cuts will mean a drop from last year's total of $2.1
million - $1.2 million of which went to the seven task forces - to
$700,000 this year. That will translate to about $400,000 for task
forces, said Roland Mena, the executive director of the state Board of
Crime Control. The board receives Byrne money from the federal
government and then allocates it to the task forces.

Unless a rigorous effort by law enforcement organizations around the
country and by a large contingent of congressmen and senators,
including Montana's delegation, succeeds in restoring funding, task
forces will start feeling the pain July 1, the beginning of the
state's fiscal year.

"We will probably end up losing three task forces and half of the 50
agents assigned," Mena said.

But the loss goes deeper, said Jeff Faycosh, the agent in charge of
the Eastern Montana Drug Task Force, which includes 10 southeastern
Montana counties.

Establishing a network of agents takes time - time to make the
contacts and gather the intelligence necessary to combat drug
trafficking across jurisdictional lines.

"It's all long term," the agent said. "If we lay off even one year, it
will take three to five years to set back up."

Federal funding has never been a sure thing. That's why the drug task
force that operates in Yellowstone County has never depended on the
Byrne grants, Undersheriff Jay Bell said.

"We know that those grants eventually run out," he said. "Our task
force is mostly self-supporting."

The task force that includes Great Falls also is not funded through
Byrne grants.

But for large chunks of the state, Byrne grants are a vital element in
the battle against drug trafficking. They have depended on those funds
for nearly 20 years.

Last year, Byrne grants covered anywhere from 30 percent of the budget
for the Tri-Agency Task in north-central Montana to 68 percent of
budget for the West Central Task Force, which is administered out of
Missoula County. It kicked in 38 percent of the Big Muddy River Task
Force budget and 50 percent of the Eastern Montana Task Force budget.

The Missouri River Task Force, which includes Bozeman and Helena in a
six-county region, could see the biggest dollar loss. Of all the task
forces, it has the largest budget this year, $756,000, according to
Lt. Dan Springer, its commander. The Byrne grant kicked in more than
$423,000, or about 56 percent of the budget, he said.

The task force's high-profile work recently has included federal drug
cases brought against former MSU football players Richard Gatewood and
Demetrius Williams, who admitted to their roles in a Bozeman cocaine
ring. Prosecutors charged that the ring brought 26 pounds of cocaine
into the area from 2005 to 2007.

According to records for fiscal year 2007, the Missouri River Task
Force made three arrests for manufacturing drugs, 165 for distribution
of drugs and 141 for possession of drugs. Marijuana and
methamphetamine accounted for most of the arrests.

Springer said the Missouri River Task Force Board hasn't decided yet
what will happen if the federal money is not restored.

"We'll probably use what's left of our forfeiture money as long as we
can," he said. Law enforcement can receive the proceeds of property
forfeited by criminals; it can include such things as cash, cars and
real estate.

But that won't last very long, said Helena Police Chief Troy McGee,
who is the chairman of the Missouri River Task Force. He anticipates
that the task force will have to disband or regroup.

"We'll still do drug work with Lewis and Clark County," he said. "But
it will have an impact on the major amounts of drugs coming in from
out of town or out of state. That will be harder to get to."

Springer agreed.

"The importance of the task force work is that drug dealers are not
specific to a geographical location," he said.

Task forces can work across county lines and even state lines in
cooperation with federal law enforcement, he said. And when an
undercover agent is needed in Bozeman, someone can come in from Helena
with less chance of being recognized.

"You could still do it," Springer said. "But you'd have to get a
memorandum of understanding every time you did it."

Losing the task forces would affect more than just drug enforcement,
he said.

"There is huge intelligence sharing, huge intelligence gathering," he
said. "Drug investigators are closest to the criminal element and
violent crime."

While it has been a fight to keep Byrne grant funding in the federal
budget for the past five years, officers said they had hoped things
would be better. In the months leading up to the budget signing, many
said they believed that they might even see a little more money for
the coming year.

They were stunned when the budget contained just $170 million for the
grants. Last year, the budget included $520 million for the program.

Blame for the funding crisis depends on who's talking. Rep. Denny
Rehberg, R-Billings, castigated Democrats in the House for the cuts.
Springer says Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is the best advocate for fully
funding Byrne grants. Many law enforcement officers complained that
President Bush has not supported the program.

Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath, a Democrat, said he found the
whole situation frustrating, especially since Montana had formulated a
comprehensive approach to illegal drugs that included not only
enforcement but also education and prevention and treatment for abusers.

Efforts are under way in Congress for a supplemental increase that
would bring funding for the program up to $660 million, or $140
million more than last fiscal year. But funding for domestic programs,
even popular ones, is tight, and there is always a veto threat.

"It will be up to each task force to try to find a way to get through
the next year," McGrath said. "We have to get through somehow until a
new, more friendly administration."