MIDWEST IS WAGING UPHILL FIGHT AGAINST METH

Battle Against Trafficking Of The Increasingly Popular, Available Drug
Jams Courts, Costs Taxpayers Millions.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- With tears in her eyes, Denise Quintanilla begged the
judge to spare her a life sentence in prison.

"You know, this is my life, and I pray that the Lord's guiding you, you
know. I'm scared," the 33-year-old mother of three told U.S. District Judge
Farris Mason.

Married to an imprisoned drug lord, Quintanilla was convicted last fall of
trafficking in methamphetamines, helping to funnel drugs worth $250,000
from Texas into southern Indiana.

Police say she is just one player in an ever increasing cat-and-mouse game
between methamphetamine traffickers and authorities in Indiana, Kentucky
and elsewhere in the Midwest.

In the federal court system in southern Indiana, the number of defendants
charged with meth trafficking increased from 7percent of the caseload in
1995 to 28percent in 2000. Elsewhere in the Midwest, meth cases have
clogged court systems and cost taxpayers millions to clean up discarded
meth labs.

The problem in Indiana appears concentrated in rural areas, said Tim
Morrison, an assistant U.S. attorney in southern Indiana.

Indiana State Police helped seize 681 meth labs in 2001, compared with just
six in 1995, Sgt. Todd Ringle said. In Kentucky, police dismantled six meth
labs in 1996 and 268 in 2001, State Police said.

"We're fighting an uphill battle," Ringle said. "The numbers continue to
get higher and higher."

In the Midwest, methamphetamines are distributed about equally by two
sources, said David Barton, director of the Midwest High Intensity Drug
Trafficking Area in Kansas City, Mo.

Organized drug rings, most from Mexico, typically import meth produced in
"super labs" in California or other Western states at a rate of 10 pounds
or more a day.

The second source is mom-and-pop cookers who buy ingredients -- cold
medicine and lithium batteries, for example -- at retail stores and produce
meth in motels, vans and backyard sheds. They often use and sell the drugs.

The lure of drug money tears families like Quintanilla's apart.

Quintanilla -- whose children are 17, 15 and 13 -- was sentenced to life in
prison. The judge, citing two prior felony drug convictions, said he had no
choice.

Concluded Barton: "A meth cook not in jail is cooking."