SUMMIT FOCUSES ON METH

Lawmakers, Police Stress Need To Curb Valley Output

FRESNO -- The Central Valley will remain the capital of U.S.
methamphetamine production unless the region can score a bigger share of
federal and state drug-fighting dollars, law enforcement representatives
told elected officials Tuesday.

About one-third of the meth labs seized are in California, but the state is
home to an estimated 97 percent of so-called superlabs that produce large
quantities of methamphetamine.

The Central Valley needs to spend money on equipment such as surveillance
aircraft and meth lab-sniffing machines, but money is especially needed to
hire more personnel, officials said.

The first Central Valley Methamphetamine Summit drew more than 120
officials and members of the public from across Northern California to a
small meeting room at the Fresno Downtown Club.

Lt. Gary Preeo, president of the California Narcotics Officers Association
and an investigator with the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office,
was invited by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office to attend the summit.

Such events are important, Preeo said Monday, to draw attention to the
region's methamphetamine crisis.

"We need to do everything we can to see that resources are made readily
available to law enforcement to combat the problem," he said.

Feinstein, D-Calif., noted during the summit that the number of meth-lab
closures and arrests continues to grow, citing statistics provided by
Central Valley sheriffs. In San Joaquin County last year, 60 meth labs were
shut down and 60 people arrested, she said.

But when police and sheriff's departments loan employees to the federally
funded Central Valley High Intensity Drug Traffic Area program, there are
fewer officers available for routine police business. For example, when
Stanislaus County needed to run a wiretap operation, officers had to be
pulled from other investigations, Sheriff Les Weidman said.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., reprising her cameo role in the newly
released movie "Traffic" about drug politics north and south of the U.S.-
Mexico border, reaffirmed her commitment to fighting California's drug war.

When Feinstein asked why U.S. and Mexican drug agents do not work more
closely to share drug war intelligence, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer
responded, "We can't trust them."

The senator urged local officials to contact the government of new Mexican
President Vicente Fox, urging the extradition of Mexicans suspected of
drug-cartel activity for trial in the United States.

Law enforcement is not methamphetamine's only cost to California, officials
said. An estimated 90 percent of the state's foster children are connected
in some manner to the meth industry. The cleanup of meth labs and dump
sites costs millions of dollars, but cleanup efforts may be fragmented,
because there are no statewide standards or protocols.

The cost of meth-lab cleanup might be covered by federal "brownfield" or
Superfund hazardous-waste-site cleanup funds, Boxer suggested.