FEDS ON TRAIL OF METH MAKERS

Challenges Of Fighting This Scourge Complicated, But Surmountable,
Officials Say

Meth makers, beware. The feds have joined the effort to rid your kind from
the Twin Tiers - specifically Bradford County's Meth Valley region.

"It's not if we get you, it's when we get you," warned U.S. Attorney Thomas
Marino at an announcement of indictments earlier this month in Bradford County.

Those words ring out like Prohibition-era prophesies of Eliot Ness gunning
for organized crime chiefs like Al Capone.

But the world that law enforcement faces today isn't the highly organized
drug or alcohol cartel it has faced in the past.

Meth makers are loosely joined groups. They may share stolen ingredients or
teach someone else how to make the drug, but they can turn on each other
faster than they can cook a batch of the deadly drug, according to Marino,
who represents the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Look at the case of Kevin Coolbaugh of Wysox. He is accused of dousing Kyle
Lane with hot ether while cooking meth. Lane sustained burns on 85 percent
of his body and spent two months in a Syracuse hospital burn unit.

Coolbaugh is among 16 meth makers and users in Bradford County who face
federal meth charges that come with at least a 10-year prison sentence.

Officials maintain that the messages they sent the meth community two weeks
ago are not empty threats, but promises.

"(Meth) is the worst drug in America," said Christopher Casey, the
assistant U.S. attorney who will prosecute the cases against the Bradford
County arrestees with Todd K. Hinkley, a fellow assistant U.S. attorney.

Meth is a problem Bradford County has become all too familiar with. Just
ask Sheriff Steve Evans.

"It's continuing to be a plague, and we will continue to fight against it,"
Evans said. "This drug has hurt hundreds of people, maybe even thousands if
you consider the family members involved."

Tracking An Elusive Prey

Meth makers, by nature highly paranoid drug addicts, are difficult to fight
- - taking time, money and risks on the part of law enforcement, Casey said.

The "mom-and-pop labs" that have plagued Bradford County are small scale
and often set up in secluded locations in the rural county - or even in the
trunks of cars.

"They are basically cooking meth every day, and it is difficult to do that
discreetly," Casey said.

But since the drug takes only about two hours to cook, it is difficult to
capture someone in the act, Evans said.

But it does happen.

Earlier this month, five men were charged after Pennsylvania State Police
discovered a working meth lab in Standing Stone near Wysox.

Along with the threatening drug, meth brings domestic violence, theft and
even toxic waste to the communities. For every one pound of meth produced,
five pounds of toxic waste are created, Marino said.

"Meth is a toxic drug that's spread like wildfire and endangered our
children," said James Kasson, the special agent in charge of the
Philadelphia office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"There are hundreds (of people) just in Bradford County alone, either using
or manufacturing the drug. That number goes up every time we bring a
defendant in and debrief them," he said.

"It certainly is a significant number, and it presents a real challenge to
law enforcement."

How To Win The Battle

Meth makers have their own network, Evans said. Informants told him hours
after the 16 people were indicted two weeks ago that "Things were going to
go from hot to hotter."

With each arrest, Bradford County officials come closer to breaking the
meth community, explained Evans. Each interview with a meth user or maker
yields more information about who is using and making the drug.

"It's like rungs in a ladder," Kasson said. "It's like a rock overturned."

Each arrest is a new beginning, Kasson said.

"I look at it from the standpoint that every day that a meth cook is in
jail, that reduces the number of people they can teach to cook meth," Evans
said.

"There tends to be a domino effect when you are on a roll on arrests. Often
one arrest leads to another, leads to another."

Cooperation Yields Results

One of the keys to keep the heat on meth makers in Bradford County is
continued vigilance by residents.

"We need another 10,000 eyes and ears on the streets," Kasson said.

"Every day more people join the ranks of the informed public, eager to
report suspicious activity," Evans said.

The Bradford County Sheriff's Department has reached more than 6,000 people
with 170 presentations on meth.

Cooperation among residents and police agencies is key, all agree.

The 16-person indictment handed down by the feds nearly two weeks ago came
about through intense cooperation between federal officials, state police,
the sheriff's department and local law enforcement.

"I think basically we realized that each of us individually was actively
pursing this issue," Evans said.

"We were prosecuting the meth issue under the state laws and having some
success, but the federal government brings substantially more resources,
including much more severe penalties."

Sharing information among the agencies isn't difficult, officials said.

"It's a matter of give and take. If you have information and are close to
being able to make an arrest, you would be the agency to move forward on
it. If someone else is closer it makes the most sense to let them take it,"
Evans explained.

"This cooperation I've seen among the agencies is most extraordinary,"
Marino said.

Evans and Casey said Marino's work to combine the efforts of the law
enforcement departments yielded the federal indictments.

"We were more than willing to help," Casey said. "It is purely a function
that starts at the top, and Tom Marino made it a point to reach out
wherever we could.

"It is expensive, but it's the job we are sworn to do. But we will do it,
and we will continue to do it," he said.

"We intend to stay on this case until we are satisfied that (meth) is no
longer a problem," Casey pledged.