DEADLY TRADE

Triple Slaying in Melbourne Again Proves Need For Aggressive Anti-Meth
Offensive

Nice neighborhoods aren't immune to deadly drug violence.

Brevard County learned that Wednesday when a triple homicide police
say is drug-related shattered the morning calm of Melbourne's Eau
Gallie Estates, known for its rustic horse ranches and mini-estates
and typically a safe place to live.

But beneath the placid surface, the scourge of drug crime had taken
root in two houses, one on Turtle Mound Road and one on Lake
Washington Road, where over the course of the morning police found
three male gunshot victims.

The investigation is ongoing, but police believe the men knew each
other and that the shootings are connected to the operation of at
least one meth lab and two marijuana grow houses.

Residents of the area were told to stay in their houses and lock their
doors Wednesday morning. Motorists were stopped from getting through
roads and three nearby schools were briefly in lockdown to protect
students from possible danger.

Despite the huge disruption, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and
Melbourne Police Department agents handled the crisis admirably,
containing the scene with no further violence by 12:30 p.m., according
to Sheriff Jack Parker.

We commend them for their expertise in ensuring innocent bystanders
weren't harmed.

Their actions -- and the three deaths -- lend even more credence to an
initiative we've praised the Sheriff's Office for before:

A hardcore push against the methamphetamine plague destroying lives
and families around the nation, including on the Space Coast, where
meth lab busts are becoming all too common.

Before Wednesday, sheriff's investigators so far this year had raided
25 illegal labs used to craft meth, making the county No. 1 statewide
for having the most meth lab shutdowns in 2007.

The cheaply produced drug is brutally addictive, but also puts anyone
living near the clandestine labs, filled with dangerous chemicals,
flammable solvents and explosive vapors, at high risk.

That's what police found yesterday when they were unable to enter some
rooms of the Turtle Mound home because of noxious fumes from a meth
lab.

The push also recently reaped a $450,000 federal grant to pay for meth
investigations and prosecution of offenders, a larger grant share than
any other Florida county.

Wednesday's sudden violence shows those dollars are sorely needed, and
that Sheriff Parker and other law enforcement agencies must continue
to make busting the homemade labs a priority.