STATE GIVES GRANT TO FIGHT METH

County's $350,000 part of California battle against drug labs, use and
related crimes

Ventura County is set to receive $350,000 to bolster its efforts to
crack down on methamphetamine use and sales, officials said.

The Ventura County Combined Agency Task force, a multiagency group
that deals with narcotics crimes, will use the money to buy
surveillance equipment and fund two new positions. One will be a crime
analyst and another will focus on the online sale of drugs, said
Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Ron Nelson.

"So much of the distribution is happening over the Internet now,"
Nelson said.

The state Office of Emergency Services gave grants totaling $29
million to 40 counties to crack down on meth labs and sales. The
neighboring counties of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara each
received the same amount of money as Ventura County. San Luis Obispo
plans to hire three new deputies for the narcotics suppression team
and Santa Barbara will hire two narcotics detectives.

As recently as five years ago, when Oxnard Police Sgt. Bob Thomas was
making narcotics arrests, the drugs involved were usually cocaine and
rock cocaine, he said. Now, the majority of arrests are
meth-related.

"This stuff is highly addictive," Thomas said. "Anything we can do to
try to stop the flow of this drug in the county will help the citizens
and young people."

Law enforcement officers say drug use often leads to other types of
crimes like auto thefts and robberies.

From Thomas' experience, meth users tend to be involved in
identity-theft crimes.

Recently, sheriff's officials said meth addicts likely contributed to
the rise in bank robberies in the county. Last year, thieves took
money from 16 banks, while so far this year 26 banks have been robbed.

Yet the number of drug arrests by the Sheriff's Department is down
from 2005.

From January to November 2005, deputies made 1,775 arrests of people
suspected of being under the influence of drugs.

Deputies made 1,604 arrests for the same time period this year. The
arrest numbers are based on the sheriff's patrol areas of Thousand
Oaks, Moorpark and Camarillo as well as Fillmore, Ojai and
unincorporated parts of the county.

Nelson said the drop in arrests has more to do with deputies' workload
than drug use.

"Those arrests tend to be more proactive," Nelson said. "Having worked
patrol and made numerous drug-related arrests, the busier you are
responding to people's crimes, the less time you have to look for drug
problems."

The Sheriff's Department has to seek the Board of Supervisors'
approval before it accepts the money. Nelson expects the board to vote
in upcoming weeks to accept the grant.