COUNTY RESCUES NARCOTICS TASK FORCE

DeSoto County officials bailed out an endangered drug enforcement
squad that roots out dealers and traffickers in Hernando and rural areas.

The Board of Supervisors OK'd $150,386 Monday to offset a loss of
federal funds that threatened to shut down the Metro Narcotics Task
Force after Jan. 1. The funding will keep the team going through
Sept. 30, 2007.

The action came after Dist. Atty. John Champion and Sheriff James
Albert Riley made strong pitches for county taxpayers to pick up a
tab left unpaid by a federal grant.

Champion said because of Interstate 55 and U.S. 78, "We're a major
corridor for drugs coming through this county, in my opinion."

"You're beginning to see that our drug business has not gone down;
it's continuing to increase," Champion said. "We're beginning to see
more weight -- larger amounts of narcotics being seized."

Riley said, "Our people are making good cases; they're stopping a
lot of drugs."

Riley bristled at what he said were suggestions that his department
was to blame. He and other officials said it's a continuation of a
trend in which federal grants start programs and are gradually
eliminated, forcing more costs on local government.

"I sit over here and do the best I can," Riley said. "I've done more
than any other sheriff in the state of Mississippi to fight drugs."

Champion and Riley pointed to breakups of 25-30 methamphetamine
operations last year and busts that netted hundreds of pounds of marijuana.

Champion said the task force will present about 50 cases to a grand
jury that convenes in January. The county grand jury met five times this year.

The county was notified shortly before the fiscal year began Oct. 1
that the state Department of Public Safety didn't approve a federal
grant to continue the task force. Supervisors had previously
approved $106,000 in local matching funds.

The sheriff's department provides three officers for the unit, and
Hernando supplies the fourth.

Unit commander Charles Lanphere said forfeitures -- cash and
proceeds from guns and vehicles seized from drug dealers -- were
keeping the unit going.

Champion said ideally, the unit should spend forfeiture money on
equipment of ever-increasing sophistication. Pricey cameras and
recording devices are needed to stay ahead of drug dealers, Champion said.

The prosecutor said a state law giving sheriff's departments
authority to use radar would be a boon for drug enforcement.

Local officials have sought such a law unsuccessfully for years.
Riley said lawmakers have opposed radar for sheriffs for fear it
could lead to revenue-producing speed traps.

Supervisor Gene Thach lamented that Southaven and Horn Lake pulled
out of the task force years ago.

"Common sense would tell you they'd do a better job if all were
working together," he said.

Champion said city police departments cooperate well with the metro
unit when investigations cross jurisdictional lines.

Supervisors designated a committee of board members Thach and Bill
Russell to meet with state officials in Jackson about why the
funding was cut. About half the state's comparable task forces
didn't get grants.