UMATILLA COUNTY IS AT DRUG TRADE CROSSROADS

PENDLETON -- A convoy of patrol cars and a black, armored police van creep
through this town, stopping in front of a single-wide trailer off a dusty
gravel road. Officers with guns and bulletproof vests jump from the van
doors and run into the house, shouting "Police! police! Get down!"

Drug raids have become a way of life in Oregon's rural Umatilla County,
known more for its ranches and farms than as a playground for drug
traffickers. A convergence of economic and geographical factors have turned
the county into a haven for drug criminals.

Umatilla County is uniquely positioned -- three major highways intersect
within its rural boundaries, giving traffickers easy access to Canada and
Mexico. At the same time, severe budget cuts have left only a few state
troopers to patrol hundreds of miles of back roads.

What's more, the county's agricultural base provides an ample supply of
fertilizer, a key ingredient for methamphetamines, and a growing migrant
population is used by Mexican drug traffickers as cover for their activities.

"If we don't get a better handle on the drug problem, it's going to be the
absolute ruin of our society," said Umatilla County Sheriff John Trumbo.
"It really bothers me that the quality of life out here is being
jeopardized by drugs."

Umatilla County, population 77,000, is barely bigger than some of
Portland's bedroom communities. Yet in 2002, it ranked No. 1 in the state
for marijuana seizures -- 65 percent of marijuana seized statewide was from
Umatilla -- and in the first five months of 2003 ranked No. 2 in meth labs
seized.

More than 50 percent of drugs seized in the county in 2002 were meth, but
agents also saw ephedrine, marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

"It's bad in this county, it's so rampant here," said Cherril Beecroft, a
33-year-old former meth addict who said two friends were murdered because
of drugs. "You walk into a grocery store and see people who look like
they've been up for days. You can just see it in people, in their eyes."

U.S. 395, the original highway connecting Mexico and Canada, has become a
pipeline for narcotics. A rural, two-lane road, it winds from Los Angeles
north to Umatilla County.

Once in Umatilla County, it intersects interstates 84 and 82. Narcotics
agents said 98 percent of the drugs in Umatilla County come from labs in
Mexico and southern California, and most of them arrive on U.S. 395.

Umatilla County's rural nature fuels its drug problem.

Fertilizer, a staple for farmers, also contains anhydrous ammonia, one of
the key ingredients for so-called "Nazi meth," a potent type of meth
developed by Germany during World War II to keep soldiers awake.

Meth lab operators siphon hundreds of gallons of the liquid fertilizer from
pressurized tanks kept here for and by farmers. Farmers buy the fertilizer
for about 70 cents a gallon from Pendleton Grain Growers, but stolen
fertilizer sells for $100 a gallon on the black market, said Sgt. Greg
Sherman, with the Oregon State Police.

State police this year laid off 84 troopers due to budget cuts, leaving
only 10 troopers to patrol a 170-mile swath of eastern Oregon. State police
once helped Umatilla County deputies patrol remote back roads -- including
395 -- but now troopers can barely manage to monitor I-84.

"There's periods where there's no law enforcement even out there," said
Detective Sgt. Mark Miller, a member of the task force. "There's towns that
don't even maintain a constant police force. If you're a drug trafficker,
do a little research and you can get pretty far."

Pendleton, the county seat, lost three-quarters of its troopers, while
Hermiston lost two-thirds. Milton-Freewater went from six troopers to one.

At the same time, funds for a 20-year-old narcotics task force made up of
city, county and state agencies, have dropped significantly and could dry
up completely without federal assistance.

"It's frustrating. Drug forfeiture used to be our main source of funding,"
Miller said. "We have all these cases to pick from and we can't get to them
all."

Hermiston, the county's second-largest city, recently pulled its officer
from the task force, saying it could fight drugs more effectively on its
own. Drug-related arrest rates increased 140 percent in the first five
months of 2003 as a result of a three-day training for all the city's
officers, said city Police Chief Dan Coulombe.

"We kind of got into the mode where drugs weren't our problem, we just
forwarded it to the task force," he said. "Now, we're more aware of what's
going on here."

But Trumbo, and other members of the force, feel that without a regional
approach -- and the pooled resources to pursue large-scale drug operations
- -- Umatilla County's problem will only get worse.

"The violators don't understand borders. Each of these agencies is way too
small to do this on their own," said Trumbo. "It's a question of survival."