108 POUNDS OF METH SEIZED IN CULLMAN

The vacuum-packed, heavily taped packages weighed a combined 108
pounds, with an estimated value of $2.4 million.

And when Tennessee law enforcement officials found them last week,
they were on their way to a Cullman trailer park.

The packages, believed to be the largest methamphetamine shipment to
Alabama ever recovered by police, spawned a scramble among Tennessee
and Alabama authorities, who persuaded the truck's driver to go ahead
and make his delivery as planned.

It worked.

On Wednesday, police announced the arrest of six men who they say ran
a thriving drug venture in Cullman County's Fairview community.

"There was a lot of meth going out of this ring," said Cullman police
narcotics Capt. Milford Parish. "This was a distribution point that
goes well beyond countywide."

Authorities said they were stunned by the amount of meth and the
implications of its prevalence in their area.

"Meth is easier to get in Cullman County than marijuana and that's
scary," Parish said. "The nature of the drug, the addictiveness of it,
the violence among its users - that's something Cullman County isn't
used to."

Sheriff Tyler Roden said there's still much work to be
done.

"It's just such an epidemic," Roden said. "This was a profound
success, but it doesn't mean we can declare victory on this problem.
It's just one step, but we have a lot of steps ahead of us."

Those arrested on federal drug or gun charges were Francisco Lopez,
Gilberto Flores Rivas, Francisco Acosta, Guillermo Nunez Zambrano,
Joel Lopez and Aurelio Diaz Barragan.

The investigation was carried out by Cullman police and sheriff's
deputies, as well as agents with Drug Enforcement Administration,
Alabama Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

It began Sept. 25 when Tennessee authorities stopped the truck in
Memphis for a routine traffic violation. They found the drugs and
immediately contacted authorities in Cullman, who worked with federal
and state drug agents to set up the delivery. Parish said the drugs
were bound for a house that was surrounded by trailers, an almost
compound-like neighborhood. Authorities secured and then searched the
house and the trailers. Inside one of the trailers, they also found
115 pounds of marijuana.

Investigators were aware of a meth problem in their
area.

"We've had some minor success," Parish said of their investigations,
"but nothing like this."

ABI Agent Guy Warren said the amount seized in Cullman is about twice
as big as the largest amount of meth investigators have seized in any
single bust statewide.

Those who had planned to distribute the 108 pounds seized in Cullman,
he explained, would cut and dilute that amount to about 300 pounds or
more for street sale. One pound of meth sells for about $8,000, he
said. Subsequent deals would probably sell the drug in 1 gram amounts.
The 300 pounds, if not cut further, would have made more than 136,000
gram packets of the drug. A gram sells on the street in the South for
between $80 and $175, according to a report from the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, meaning the drug could have sold on the
streets for between $10.8 million and $23.8 million.

While a lot of meth is manufactured in dangerous clandestine,
home-grown labs, Warren said most of the meth in Alabama comes from
Mexico and southern California.

The highly addictive stimulant, and the violence is spawns, continues
to plague the state, he said.

"I have been doing this for 20 years and I've worked major cases for
cocaine, marijuana, and Ecstasy," Warren said. "I haven't been in a
crack house for five years. I've been working nothing but
methamphetamines."