SHERIFF: COUNTY IS A DRUG HUB

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson says the county is a hub for
drugs on the Eastern seaboard.

He cites Interstates 85 and 40 as a pipeline to bring drugs into and
through the area. And, he says, it's one stop short of Interstate 95.
This isn't a recent development, he said; it's historic. The drugs
that are coming into Alamance County are coming in from Mexico, right
up the interstate. The illegal drugs coming through Alamance County
are worth billions of dollars, he said.

"It's stashed here and distributed all over the southeastern United
States and up the Eastern seaboard."

Sheriff 's investigators have broken up drug rings they say ran
between Burlington and Johnson City, Tenn., just over the state
border. Drug trafficking got so bad that Tennessee officers had
probable cause to pull over anyone with North Carolina license plates
that came back to the county, sheriff 's spokesman Randy Jones said.

U.S. Attorney Gregg Sullivan, Chief of the Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Task Force in Chattanooga, Tenn., has handled numerous
marijuana and cocaine cases, many of which have led back to Alamance
County. One crack cocaine case between 2001 and 2003 led to the
indictment of nearly 70 people from Burlington, Sullivan said. At that
time, the drug traffickers were pushing between 30 and 50 ounces of
crack cocaine per week. Sullivan said the drug rings are
well-organized, with people having clearly defined roles in the drug
trade. The intricate networks include transportation couriers, dealers
to repackage and distribute the cocaine and people and businesses as
fronts in both states.

"Individuals were recruited to move to Johnson City, Tenn., and set up
crack cocaine networks," Sullivan said.

Many of the couriers were paid in crack cocaine. Last year, Brooklyn,
N.Y., intelligence officers told Johnson that cocaine and marijuana
trafficking rings often start in Alamance County and come up north.
Jones said that the drug trafficking problem has put the county on the
map for many jurisdictions across the nation.

"It ought to be upsetting when DEA agents in El Paso, Texas, know
where Alamance County in North Carolina is," Jones said. "We've had
too many people here with their heads in the sand for too long, and
that's why we've become a hub," Johnson said.

Johnson cited Alamance County's location along two major trafficking
corridors and the Hispanic population as part of the problem. The
sheriff said agencies around North Carolina identify Alamance County
as being one of the biggest drug counties.

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said that along his county's stretch
of I-40, vice detectives arrest drug traffickers coming and going from
Alamance County to Texas, Florida and New York.

"Basically, they are coming in because Alamance County is a transition
point for them," Barnes said. "(Drug traffickers) will repackage the
drugs here. It's a good central area to come into and out of quickly.
Then they supply to other places."

Barnes said sheriff 's departments that don't have the manpower and
resources to cover their territory make it easier for drug
trafficking. Johnson says as much as 80 percent of the crime in the
county is in some way tied to the drug trade.