STATE-FEDERAL DRUG TASK FORCE SECURES INDICTMENTS FOR 28

Cooperative Effort Targets Meth Trafficking In Northeast Texas

08:23 PM CDT on Friday, September 26, 2003

A joint state-federal investigation targeting methamphetamine trafficking in
Paris, Texas, has resulted in federal indictments of 28 people, authorities
said Friday.

Twenty-six of the defendants had been arrested by Friday morning on charges
ranging from drug trafficking to weapons violations, said U.S. Attorney Matt
Orwig.

The case began with local narcotics investigations by Paris police and a
regional drug task force. Authorities said some of the defendants had been
under police surveillance for more than two years, and all but two were
residents of the northeast Texas town or surrounding Lamar County.

Lamar County District Attorney Mark Burtner said federal authorities offered to
join the case within the last month, and local officials jumped at the chance
to bring federal cases that carry far stiffer sentences than those commonly
handed down for state drug convictions.

Mr. Burtner said that within three weeks after he started discussing the
county's drug problems with a federal prosecutor, the U.S. attorney's office
had structured a prosecution plan, lined up other federal agencies to help
implement it, and suspects were being rounded up on federal charges.

"I feel very good about the future of our joint cooperative efforts in Lamar
County and northeast Texas," he said.

The violations detailed in seven separate indictments include manufacture and
trafficking in methamphetamine and crack cocaine and gun trafficking.

With the indictments returned Sept. 11 and unsealed Friday in U.S. District
Court in Sherman, 25 of the defendants face maximum sentences of life
imprisonment and fines of up to $4 million if convicted, and the others face
maximum sentences of 25 to 60 years, officials said.

"It's a lot of people off the street for a very long time," said Mr. Orwig, who
oversees federal prosecutions for the judicial district that stretches across
East Texas. "And these are bad alleged offenders, a lot of bad offenders for a
small community. I expect it to have a very, very big impact."

Eight state, federal and local agencies worked on the cases, and authorities
said they plan to continue a cooperative effort to combat what has become the
major drug problem in many rural Texas communities.

"Meth is the fastest growing drug in our area. It's a small-town problem.
You're more likely to use meth in a small community than in a larger
community," Mr. Orwig said. "We have this meth team now, and we're very
aggressively and proactively going after meth organizations throughout all of
northeast Texas and East Texas."