'METHBUSTERS' AIMS TO STOP DRUG ACTIVITY

Program To Be Launched Today Targets Increase In East Texas Cases

BEAUMONT, Texas - The number of methamphetamine cases in East Texas has
dramatically increased in the last few years, prompting prosecutors and
police to launch a program aimed at stopping the manufacture and use of the
drug.

The "Methbusters" program, to be launched today, will develop outreach
programs, keep statistics on arrests and prosecutions of meth-related
offenses, and teach law officers and the community about the trend.

"It's going to be a tough, tough battle," said Michelle Englade, a
Beaumont-based assistant U.S. attorney. "I think right now we're just
seeing that the dangers of it are just so extreme. The illegal narcotics
are certainly dangerous to the individual and maybe families."

East Texas authorities first started seeing meth in the late 1990s. Its use
has steadily increased since 2000, Ms. Englade said in Sunday's Beaumont
Enterprise.

Thirty-seven cases involving meth and meth labs were prosecuted in 2002 by
the Eastern District of the U.S. attorney's office - which covers 43
counties from the Red River on Texas' northern border down the state's
eastern border to the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2003, the number of meth cases had jumped to 72. There are 29 open cases
so far this year.

The Deep East Texas Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, which covers
Sabine, Shelby, Nacogdoches, Angelina, Houston and Tyler counties, has shut
down 350 meth labs in the last 4 1/2 years.