SACRAMENTO COUNTY TO GET 20 NEW METH WARRIORS

$30 Million Will Fuel A Statewide Effort To Battle The Harmful Drug.

About 20 more law enforcement officers will be added in Sacramento County
to target the manufacture and sale of methamphetamine.

"A large percentage of violent acts can be blamed on methamphetamine," said
Sgt. James Lewis, Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"Anytime we get involved in investigating crimes with significant violence,
methamphetamine is typically behind them."

Police chiefs from Lodi, Galt and Elk Grove joined Sacramento County
Sheriff Lou Blanas and Assemblyman Anthony Pescetti, R-Rancho Cordova, at a
news conference Tuesday detailing public safety funding.

They focused attention on $30 million in new state funding for the High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, which specifically targets
methamphetamine distribution and manufacturing in the Central Valley.

"This is the most significant commitment on a state level that we have ever
seen," Lewis said.

This year's state budget includes $317 million for public safety. Included
in that funding is $18 million for 180 new full-time officers in Northern
California, Pescetti said.

Historically, methamphetamine, also called "crank" or "speed," was the
illicit drug of commerce for motorcycle gangs. The drug is injected,
smoked, eaten or snorted.

Chemicals used to produce the drug are brought over the border by Mexican
immigrants, Lewis said. From there, the chemicals are transported up
Interstate 5 to rural portions of the Central Valley.

Drug preparers seek country outposts where the odor of methamphetamine
production might not be detected.

The drug producers also appreciate out-of-the-way locations to avoid law
enforcement and raids by rival drug dealers.

"No single ethnic group is immune from it," Lewis said. "It has impacted so
many people's lives. And it is such a harmful, life- altering substance."

Lewis said the drug, a central nervous-system stimulant, prevents an
individual from sleeping, stressing the body's systems.

Methamphetamine labs present problems other than violence and addiction:
Ingredients can explode, the mixtures of chemicals are toxic to humans, and
those who produce methamphetamine indiscriminately dump the ingredients.

Officials said arrests of so-called "cranksters" are bound to increase as
investigators root out rural methamphetamine labs where the drug is produced.

The federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program focuses on
regions that have significant methamphetamine problems.

Federal officials designated the Central Valley, stretching from northern
Sacramento County to Kern County, a high intensity drug- trafficking area
in 1999.

Currently, the Sacramento region HIDTA team consists of two detectives and
a sergeant from the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and
representatives from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, Sacramento Police Department, Sacramento
County Probation Department and the National Guard.

Last year, an 18-page special report, "A Madness Called Meth," published
jointly by The Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee and Modesto Bee, detailed how the
illegal methamphetamine trade has become one of the Valley's biggest and
most dangerous businesses.

With the new money, investigators from various departments such as
Sacramento, Folsom, Galt, Citrus Heights and Elk Grove will form a regional
task force to attack the problem, Blanas said.

In the Central Valley, there could be an additional 80 officers deployed,
Blanas said.