DRUG, WEAPONS BUST IN CARTHAGE, MO., NETS 47

CARTHAGE, Mo. - Federal, state and local authorities arrested 47 people in
this southwest Missouri town Wednesday after raiding more than a dozen
homes in a massive drug and weapons bust.

The sweep by about 180 law enforcement officers came after a more than
two-year investigation that has led to state or federal charges against 62
people, said Chris Whitley, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Todd Graves.

"The investigation is not over," Whitley said. "I wouldn't call this a
culmination. It has finally reached a very public and visible stage."

Whitley said 28 of the 36 people facing various federal drugs and weapons
charges had been arrested as of Wednesday night. Another 26 people, 19 of
whom were arrested Wednesday, face state charges of possessing drugs with
intent to distribute.

The multi-agency investigation focused on the distribution of drugs from
California, Texas and Guatemala to Jasper, Greene, Christian, Lawrence and
Webster counties, authorities said.

The drugs included cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, Whitley said.
Authorities also recovered more than 100 weapons linked to one suspect, he
said.

"It can be best characterized as a series of relatively closely related but
still separate conspiracies," Whitley said, adding that most of the
defendants are from Jasper County. "There was no particular mastermind."

Before dawn, helicopters flew above the town about 55 miles west of
Springfield. On the ground, agents with the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Agency - joined by the
Missouri State Highway Patrol and police from Carthage and Joplin - began
their raids.

Officials with the Immigration and Naturalization Service set up
checkpoints throughout Carthage and checked people for green cards, KOAM-TV
reported.

Residents in one working class neighborhood said they watched SWAT officers
remove the front door of a house about 6 a.m. and eventually emerge with
materials from inside, witnesses said.

Don Stearnes, a Carthage councilman who lives down the street from the
home, said a man and woman had lived in the rental house about a month.
Another neighbor, Sherman Hale, 39, said he noticed sheets hanging over the
windows of the home at night.

"We never realized it would happen in this neighborhood," Stearnes said.
"Carthage is a really good town to live in. I just hope it doesn't paint a
bad picture."

Hale and his family moved to Carthage from California to get away from
drugs and crime.

"It's shocking 'cause this happened right across the street from my house,"
Hale said. "Now they're hitting close to home again."

A sport utility vehicle with a bumper sticker that read "No to drugs" was
parked across the street from the raided house, which is about a half block
from an elementary school.

The federal charges were sealed in five indictments returned by a
Springfield grand jury Jan. 24 and in four criminal complaints filed
Tuesday in U.S. District Court there. All were made public Wednesday.