METH SEIZURES CONCERN AUTHORITIES

LONDON, Ky. -- Authorities are concerned that two sizable methamphetamine
seizures in three weeks may signal that outside drug traffickers are
targeting southeastern Kentucky.

Police arrested three men Aug. 9 in Williamsburg for allegedly attempting
to accept a delivery of 16 pounds of meth. This week, police seized 29
pounds of meth in London and charged three people with transporting it from
Southern California for distribution.

Before this month, most meth cases in the area involved an ounce or less
that had been produced locally, typically in homemade labs.

The two meth shipments from out of state could indicate that large
traffickers are moving into the area, either to try to take over the market
or to establish a base to distribute the drug in other states.

"It's raising our concern," said Michael Pelonero, resident agent in charge
of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in London.

The DEA investigated both of the large seizures and made arrests with
support from other federal, state and local police.

The first case grew out of a traffic stop in Arizona, in which police found
just over 16 pounds of meth bound for Kentucky. The DEA turned the delivery
into a sting, arresting Calvin Dawson, his son James Dawson, and Bobby
Lovell, all of Rockcastle County, when they showed up in Williamsburg to
allegedly get the shipment. All three were charged with conspiracy to
possess with intent to distribute meth and marijuana.

The second seizure grew out of a DEA investigation in Southern California.

An informant there told federal drug agents that a large meth manufacturer
had made several shipments of the drug to the London-Corbin area and was
planning another large shipment, according to a sworn statement from Fred
Baker, a DEA special agent in the London office.

Baker testified at a hearing Thursday that Dale Clinton Lewis, 40, and his
girlfriend, Tammy Davidson, 34, both of Knox County, picked up the shipment
last week in Southern California.

Lewis, with Davidson as passenger, brought the load back to Kentucky in a
dog box in the back of his pickup truck while the informant and Jose
Salazar-Peliego, 34, followed in another vehicle, Baker said.
Salazar-Peliego, of Puebla, Mexico, was to make deliveries of the drug and
collect for past shipments, Baker said.

The DEA kept tabs on the shipment with a tracking device on the vehicle
carrying the informant and through surveillance, including from the air.
Police arrested Lewis, Davidson and Salazar-Peliego on Aug. 26.

They are charged with conspiring to possess and distribute meth. Because of
the large amount of the drug involved, they face maximum sentences of 10
years to life if convicted.

Meth production and trafficking has mushroomed in Kentucky in recent years
as the drug spread from California and across the Midwest to the East.

In 2001, for instance, the Kentucky State Police investigated 156 meth labs
in Kentucky, said Lt. Lisa Rudzinski. This year, the number could double;
state police had investigated 174 labs as of July 31.