FEDS KICK IN TO HELP COMBAT DRUGS IN COUNTY

Because of the threat of methamphetamine and other drugs in Jefferson
County, the federal government labeled the county part of the Midwest
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area this week, and with that label
comes small annual doses of federal support to fight drug trafficking.

The county will receive $125,000 of the $500,000 divided among four
Missouri counties that received the designation this week.

Sgt. Gary Higginbotham, commander of the Jefferson County drug task
force, said one improvement might be to hire an analyst to find links
among traffickers who move drugs across the country and stop in
Jefferson County.

"In other words, make our job easier," he said.

Just last week, Higginbotham said, the drug task force seized 7
ounces, about $20,000 worth, of ice methamphetamine in High Ridge.
The drug is a more pure form of methamphetamine that the task force
believes came from Mexico.

Importation like that is happening more often with increased meth lab
busts and less access to pseudoephedrine, a key meth ingredient. The
imported drugs move on interstate highways through Jefferson County
to cities such as St. Louis and Chicago, and now the county will
receive help from the federal government.

"The design is to allow the reach of law enforcement to get to the
problem," said John Walters, the director of National Drug Control
Policy and President George W. Bush's drug czar. He said the money
should help fight meth on two levels: people making meth locally and
the "criminal, mafia-like organizations, mostly in Mexico" that are
bringing drugs into the state.

The four counties receiving the federal aid are Jefferson, Franklin,
Cole and Boone counties.