FEDERAL GRANT LETS COUNTY EXPAND DRUG FORCE

$150,000 Is Triple Previous Amount And Will Be Used To Hire Three More
Officers

Jefferson County's annual federal grant to fight methamphetamine
tripled this year to about $150,000, an amount that will allow the
county's successful drug task force to add three officers.

The grant, administered every year by the Missouri Sheriffs
Methamphetamine Relief Team, or MoSMART, gives money to 60 state
law-enforcement agencies and drug task forces. This year, MoSMART will
distribute more than $3.2 million.

Jefferson County's drug task force, comprising sheriff's deputies and
municipal officers, will receive $100,000. The county sheriff's
department will get a little more than $49,000. Last year, the county
received about $50,000 from the program.

Cpl. Tommy Wright, commander of Jefferson County's drug task force,
said the money would give a big boost to meth-control efforts in the
county.

"Without this money, we could certainly continue to make arrests and
put people behind bars for making meth," Wright said. "But with this
money, we're going to able to make more arrests and make better
arrests." Wright said the money would be used to pay and equip three
more officers for the task force. He said that it cost about $15,000
to train and equip a narcotics investigator. The new task force
members "will be designated to work nothing but meth-lab reduction,"
Wright said.

Use and production of the meth, a powerful and highly addictive
illegal drug, has exploded across Missouri. Jefferson County has been
especially hard hit in recent years.

The county is third only to southwest Missouri's Jasper County and
nearby Franklin County in the number of drug labs, ingredient caches
and meth-related dump sites discovered by police in 2002, according to
statewide crime statistics released in March. Jefferson County had 148
meth raids and seizures last year, up from 67 in 2001.

In August, the sheriff's department announced a $250,000 federal
grant, also intended to help local law-enforcement officers fight
meth. That money will be used to install mobile data terminals in at
least 10 cars used by drug investigators.