METH GETTING THE BOOT

Drug Ops Have Cut Numbers Drastically

Operation Speedflick. Operation Roadrunner. Operation IceMelt.
Operation Ice and Iron. They're all responsible for taking
methamphetamine out of homes in McDowell and across the western region.

U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert of the western district of North
Carolina, joined by agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, McDowell
County sheriff's deputies, Marion police officers and other regional
law enforcement, held a press conference in Marion Thursday as part
of the U.S. Justice Department's National Methamphetamine Awareness Day.

McDowell has led the state the last two years in the number of meth
lab busts, according to SBI statistics.

The purpose of Thursday's event was to generate awareness about the
damaging effects of meth abuse on individuals, families and American
communities. Meth is an illegal stimulant drug that has acute toxic
effects and can produce long-term physiological problems.

In 2005, the DEA and SBI, working with local law enforcement, focused
on meth lab conspiracy cases which targeted repeat offenders who were
"cooks" and those involved with them who obtained chemicals and/or
distributed meth. These law enforcement efforts, combined with new
state pseudoephedrine legislation that came into effect in January,
has led to a halt in the growth of clandestine laboratories seized in
North Carolina for the first time since 1999.

As of Nov. 27, 183 labs had been seized statewide in 2006, compared
to 300 labs as of Nov. 23, 2005.

The number of labs seized in McDowell County has been stable since
Aug. 1. "We are here today in McDowell County to highlight law
enforcement's cooperative efforts locally against those who would
produce or cook methamphetamine in the western part of North
Carolina. We also want to warn anyone who would smuggle in or
distribute imported methamphetamine in our western counties that
these concentrated law enforcement efforts will continue," Shappert stated.

"We want the hard-working and law-abiding citizens of every diverse
group of people living in McDowell County and in the western district
of North Carolina to know the nature of the ongoing work of law
enforcement and prosecutors and to know how truly wicked
methamphetamine is to users and to the communities in which they live."

Since 2001, local, state and federal authorities have sent dozens of
people from McDowell and surrounding counties to federal prison in
connection with meth conspiracies.

With the recent stabilization of lab seizures, law enforcement and
federal prosecutors have shifted their focus currently to the threat
posed by Mexican traffickers who currently dominate the meth market
in North Carolina, said the U.S. attorney.

Shappert thanked local and regional law enforcement officers for
their ongoing commitment to battle the meth problem in western North Carolina.