DRUG AGENCY EXPANDS

N. Texas Force Will Add 3 Squads To Target Oklahoma Meth Labs

A North Texas federal drug task force is expanding its reach into Oklahoma
to counter some of the nation's largest concentrations of clandestine
methamphetamine laboratories.

The North Texas High Intensity Drug Area task force, one of 33 multiagency
groups funded across the country in recent years to dismantle major drug
organizations, has won approval to form three new squads from a number of
Oklahoma law enforcement agencies.

Law enforcement officials in Dallas said gaining approval for the task
force expansion to Oklahoma had been difficult because counterterrorism has
been such a high priority, but they said an inability of thinly stretched
local police to stem a major rise of a national methamphetamine trade made
a powerful argument for the expansion.

"Oklahoma is second or third in the country as far as the number of these
clandestine labs. It's a major problem there," said task force director
David Israelson, who works at the 3-year-old group's headquarters near
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. "With those three task forces
being formed, I think it will give us a pretty good starting point in
Oklahoma. For right now, that's about all we can do with the available money."

The six targeted counties are in the central and eastern parts of the
state: Oklahoma, Tulsa, Muskogee, Sequoyah, Comanche and Cleveland. Last
year, those counties accounted for most of the 1,200 labs confiscated by
state authorities.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, which oversees the nation's 33
HIDTA task force offices, approved the rare expansion in September with an
initial $250,000 grant. The three new squads should be deployed by Christmas.

"There just aren't a lot of resources up there," said Dallas DEA Special
Agent in Charge Sherri Strange, who campaigned for the expansion in her
office's jurisdiction. "Oklahoma is a very rural place, and a lot of their
resources are spread out."

An HIDTA "threat assessment" study this year in rural Oklahoma cites a
surge in substance-abuse treatment numbers that places Oklahoma 42 percent
higher than the national average for stimulant abuse. The study also says
Oklahoma is a major national hub for the smuggling and distribution of
illegal "precursor" chemicals used in the home production of methamphetamine.

"There appears to be no slowdown in either clandestine methamphetamine lab
activity or Oklahoma's role as a major source for precursor chemicals," the
report said. "With 35 registered wholesalers and three manufacturers of
pseudoephedrine, Oklahoma-based chemicals have been found in all
surrounding states and as far as California and Nevada."

Pseudoepedrine is a decongestant commonly used in over-the-counter cold
medicines. It also is a main ingredient in the production of illegal
methamphetamine.

Mr. Israelson said one task force squad will try to disrupt the trade in
precursor drugs. Another will target clandestine labs. A third Oklahoma
City-based squad will spend much of its time supporting those activities in
intelligence-gathering roles but also gathering information about Mexican
drug-trafficking gangs operating in Oklahoma.

Mexican drug traffickers have set up operations near Oklahoma City and
Tulsa, creating tightly knit gangs that traffic in large quantities of
cocaine, marijuana, and heroin, federal officials said.

Primary corridors

Interstates 35, 40 and 44 in Oklahoma are the primary corridors for these
operations, with large amounts being shipped to other major cities,
particularly Chicago, Kansas City and New York. Money from the drug
transactions is then shipped back to Mexico by similar routes, the threat
assessment report said.

Malcom Atwood, director of Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics, said he
welcomes the extra government help to combat a problem that seems to be
spiraling beyond his agency's control.

"Those are probably the counties in which most of the drug activity in
Oklahoma has been taking place," he said. "With the federal resources,
we'll be able to focus in on those problems."