BORDER METH PROBLEM CREEPS NORTH

Shootout A Sign Of Escalating Battle With Border Traffickers

They knew it was wrong when woodchips and glass started flying.

Sgt. Bob Newton answered reporters' questions Friday along with Sgt. Kenneth
Wilkins and Senior Cpl. Adolfo Perez, who, along with two other SWAT
officers, were recovering from injuries from a shootout Thursday. Senior
Cpl. Dale Hackbarth felt intense pain, a burning in the back of his thigh.
His foot went dead as he crawled toward an armored vehicle where doctors
waited.

Nearby, Senior Cpl. Harry "Chuck" Deltufo noticed blood running down
the side of his face and neck.

Senior Cpl. Harry 'Chuck' Deltufo and Senior Cpl. Dale Hackbarth are greeted
by Dallas First Assistant Chief David Brown at a news conference Friday, a
day after the shootout in Red Bird. All four SWAT officers who were shot are
expected to make a full recovery. A bullet hit Sgt. Kenneth Wilkins' ring
finger.

Doctors had to remove his wedding band later at the hospital. Senior
Cpl. Adolfo Perez started coughing up blood.

They're the fortunate four, Dallas SWAT officers who survived an early
morning shootout Thursday while trying to break up a drug ring. But
they're also the embodiment of a surge in potentially violent
confrontations between police and Mexican narcotics dealers, fueled by
the flow drugs, money and guns up Interstate 35, local and federal
authorities say. And as border violence spreads into Dallas, police
are turning up the heat. "In September, we went to SWAT and said, "We
need you guys to do more,' " said Dallas First Assistant Chief David
Brown.

"Our tactical guys weren't running as many warrants as they once did.
We challenged them to end the year right, run more warrants. They ran
twice as many as normal. They're continuing that this year."

Raiding more drug stashes means facing more violence. "Them being in
harm's way is making Dallas safer," Chief Brown said. "We're convinced
that taking the fight to the bad guys and being more proactive is the
right thing to do for the citizens."

On Thursday, the drug targeted was methamphetamine. Seven people, some
Mexican nationals, were arrested around North Texas in connection with
the ring. Among them was the man police believe shot at them,
43-year-old Alejandro Tamayo, who surrendered after a standoff.

Michelle Deaver, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration
in Dallas, said Friday that authorities are investigating more meth
moving into the Dallas area from the border.

As U.S. lawmakers have made it increasingly tough to acquire a key
ingredient in methamphetamine - pseudoephedrine, a common active
ingredient in cold medicine - fewer people north of the border are
"cooking" the dangerous drug. That means more imports.

"We're investigating more ice," she said of the rocklike drug, which
is about 80 percent meth and is commonly smoked like crack cocaine.
"Our lab seizures are down in Texas, which is a great thing for
neighborhoods because there are fewer chemicals out there and fewer
labs," she said. "Our cases are still high because [meth] is being
brought in from the border."

Meth is a lucrative market, selling for $400 to $3,000 per ounce,
according to the DEA. Experts say that as the drug's popularity
increases, prices will rise and so will the violence among competing
traffickers. Even though meth imports from Mexico provide a headache
for local authorities, cocaine and marijuana shipments remain Dallas'
chief problem, police say.

"Dallas is one of the few major southwestern cities that hasn't really
seen the meth epidemic hit its inner city," Chief Brown said. The
traffickers hauling in the more popular drugs are the same ones
bringing in meth, he said. And as a whole, police are encountering
more violence from drug dealers, he said.

"In the past four of five months, there's been a 50 percent increase
in confiscated weapons in our drug raids," he said.

On Friday, the four Dallas SWAT officers stood before cameras and
microphones as the wounded proof of the new drug wars. Each is
expected to fully recover.

They had been asked by the DEA to help serve drug warrants because the
occupants of the home on Oak Park Drive were thought to be heavily
armed. Combined, the officers have more than 70 years in police work.
"It's become more common where we're encountering people that have
these high-powered rifles, assault rifles, and we don't take them for
granted," Cpl. Perez said Friday.

"You know there's a possibility of getting into a gunfight." It's
their job - an exercise in planning, adrenaline and courage. "We don't
go in and say, 'This is just a routine warrant; we're just going to go
through the motions and smoke and joke about it, then go home,' " Cpl.
Deltufo said.

"We know our job. We know what to do." Sgt. Wilkins, a 24-year
department veteran nicknamed Deacon for his spiritual ways, put it
simply: "We got the bad guy."