THEIR BEST WEAPON: THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

Dallas Undercover Agents Help Towns Nab Drug Suspects

ARDMORE, Okla. - The inquisitive people of this southern Oklahoma town
tried not to pay much attention when strangers from Dallas opened up a
computer-consulting office three months ago and kept mostly to themselves.

It's not that the reclusive newcomers were unfriendly, but they avoided
contact with the locals. They knew they would need the element of surprise
for the day last week when they stormed neighborhood drug houses and busted
dozens of suspected dealers who had been terrorizing Ardmore.

It wasn't long before the whole town learned that the shy computer geeks
were really undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents who are part
of the little-known Mobile Enforcement Team.

Since Congress financed the program in 1995, the Dallas-based strike force
of undercover agents has used stealth to set up 19 stings in small towns in
Texas and Oklahoma.

In Ardmore last week, the seven men and one woman of the mobile team ended
their three-month stay with the delivery of 30 drug suspects to the local
jail. Before anyone could thank them, the agents were gone - to a new,
undisclosed town where few will know about them until the DEA flak vests
and guns come out again.

BRAD LOPER / DMN

Undercover DEA agents based in Dallas guard suspects in front of a home in
Ardmore, Okla. Dozens of suspected drug dealers were busted in a sting last
week. Before neighbors could thank the agents, the team was off to its next
assignment.

"You have no idea what ... [the drug dealers] have put us through," said
Janie Pearson, who lives across the street from one drug house where the
DEA made arrests. "We have constantly called the police, but they always
said, 'We know about it, but there's nothing we can do about it.' "

As part of the war on drugs, Congress has appropriated $8.5 million a year
to check street-level drug dealers taking root in small-town America.
Enforcement teams now set up stings at the request of local police in all
50 states.

Ardmore Police Chief Tony Garrett thought drug traffickers were taking
advantage of his police force of 52 officers - including only three trained
for narcotics work. The growing crime rate and citizen complaints caused by
the drug trade prompted him to call for the Mobile Enforcement Team.

The agents used sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment that Chief
Garrett didn't have, undercover training techniques his troops didn't know
and plenty of cash needed to set up the suspected dealers.

But most important, the Mobile Enforcement Team brought in people the drug
dealers didn't know, the chief said.

"They are fresh faces," Chief Garrett said. "It's hard to be undercover in
a small town. A lot of our narcotics officers are well-known in the drug
community."

Law enforcement officials say situations such as the controversial 1999
drug sting by local authorities in the Panhandle town of Tulia underscore
the need for the Mobile Enforcement Team program. Federal and state
investigations are under way into allegations that an Amarillo-based
regional task force overly relied on a single investigator to bust 10
percent of Tulia's black population on drug charges.

The work of the Mobile Enforcement Team program comes at a time when the
production and sale of methamphetamine is soaring in rural areas. A recent
government "Drug Threat Assessment" report called the drug the
fastest-growing problem, especially in East Texas and rural Oklahoma.

Matt Orwig, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, said the
Mobile Enforcement Team program is viewed as something of a treasure in his
region. The deterrent effect of the raids resonates in small communities
much more than in urban areas, he said.

"A sweep of operations like these can have a particularly high impact in
small communities," he said.

Ideally, the work of the enforcement team is permanent. But DEA officials
acknowledge that drug dealers tend to return after the team departs. A
General Accounting Office audit of the program two years ago found a number
of flaws, including a failure to adequately track crime rates in those
communities.

Dallas DEA Special Agent in Charge Sherri Strange said the agency now
monitors crime rates for six months and will send the team back if necessary.

"Every community is a little bit different, and some communities are a
little bit more difficult to work," Agent Strange said. "If we see that
trend happening, we'll go eradicate them off the streets again."

From 1995 through April 2002, about 340 deployments nationally produced
14,400 defendants and $25 million in seized assets. The Dallas DEA team,
which covers territory ranging from Tyler to Lubbock and from Waco to
Kansas, has arrested 762 people in 19 towns since 1995. Athens, Paris,
Corsicana, Brownwood, Texarkana and Grand Prairie are among the 19 cities.

The program offers some unusual work for agents, who must live in targeted
towns from three to nine months to infiltrate trafficking groups.

They must sequester themselves for months in their apartments or hotel
rooms, constantly taking evasive action to avoid discovery, questions and
friendships. Agents do get to go home most weekends, DEA officials said.

"You've got to lay down a pretty good cover story," said Supervisory
Special Agent Richard Sanders.

After most operations, the team moves on so fast that members rarely get a
chance to hear parting thanks from residents.

Although residents are appreciative, a number of people in Ardmore,
including neighbor Richard Suggs, expressed fear that the dealers would be
back.

"They'll be back tomorrow," he said. "And you never know what they'll do."