IMPORTED METH: STATE'S NEW SCOURGE?

'Ice' Heats Up Amid War Against Indiana-Made Drug

Greenwood police have seized $300,000 of methamphetamine -- a drug
that police in Indiana have been fighting hard to eradicate -- in a
bust involving a highly addictive and often-imported variety called "ice."

Police say ice, often three times as pure and expensive as its
Indiana-made counterpart, typically travels a route that begins in
Mexico, crosses the border and then is distributed across the United States.

"They jam our borders with up to a dozen semis at a time, and they
know that every one of them can't be checked," said Matt Fillenwarth,
investigations commander for Greenwood police. "If four trucks are
found loaded with drugs, that means eight more got through."

Greenwood police arrested two men Friday and seized 2 pounds of
crystal methamphetamine, nicknamed "ice" on the street because it is
almost transparent.

Federal authorities had warned local police that Mexican ice had been
found in the northeastern United States and soon would be reaching
the Midwest, said Greenwood Police Chief Joe Pitcher.

"This is even more telling, because finding this substance here is
telling us the local meth flow is drying up and the users are seeking
a foreign source, and we know it is from Mexico," Pitcher said.

Ten Greenwood police officers and a federal Drug Enforcement
Administration agent arrested the two suspects after the men traveled
to a McDonald's restaurant at 1197 S. Park Drive, just off I-65 in
Greenwood, to deliver a pound of the drug. The deal was made through
a police informant.

Arrested Friday on charges of dealing methamphetamine were Vincente
Linares-Avila, 26, 1900 block of Fox Hill Drive in Indianapolis, and
Oscar Medival-Cota, 26, who is thought to be an Arizona resident.

A man agreed by telephone to sell 4 pounds of the drug to an
undercover narcotics officer for $12,500 per pound, Fillenwarth said.
They arrived at the restaurant about 7 p.m. and were arrested as they
were leaving.

Police found a pound of the drug in the car and another pound at a
house near 62nd Street and Michigan Road in Indianapolis, where one
of the men lived. The drug was described as highly refined, and DEA
chemists in Chicago will examine it.

"That's the most ice I've ever seen in one arrest," Fillenwarth said.

The network that police suspect the two men belong to is
predominantly Hispanic, and authorities think the drugs were smuggled
from Mexico to Arizona before being transported to Indiana, Fillenwarth said.

Authorities also suspect members of that network to be what are known
as "polydrug dealers," because they work in professional labs where
they turn out not only ice, but also marijuana, cocaine and black-tar heroin.

Fillenwarth described the ice police seized Friday as being about 90
percent pure, compared with meth produced in Indiana, which is only
about 20 percent to 30 percent pure.

"It only takes a fraction of it to get high and addicted," he said.
"It is potent stuff."

Dealers often "cut" the drug, or dilute it, to increase their profit.

"This stuff we confiscated could be at least tripled in volume, if
not more," Fillenwarth said. "And what was selling for $300 a gram
originally now is selling for $900 a gram."

Police think local meth production had been declining recently. They
cited a 2005 state law that restricted access to cold and allergy
medicines that contained a key ingredient in meth's production. In
the year since the law's inception, meth lab seizures dropped 25
percent statewide, from 1,109 to 846.

Fillenwarth said the decline in clandestine labs has enhanced the
Mexican drug business.

"These Mexican labs are professional labs and turning out lots of
illegal drugs," he said. "Six years ago, the troublesome drug was
crack cocaine. Now the problem is ice, and next year it could be something new.

"Ice makes someone crazy when they are coming down after being up
without sleep for three or four days straight," he said. "They'll do
some terrible things."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.