DRUG TASK FORCE NABS 45 PEOPLE IN THREE MONTHS

Two-man task force sets out to clean up the city, with a little help
from county and federal agents

BAYOU LA BATRE - Four people were arrested here last month for
stealing a three-gallon tank full of ammonia from a local seafood
warehouse - they were busted not only for the theft but for
possessing a precursor chemical for the production of methamphetamine.

In October, two lingerers at a local crack house were nabbed on
marijuana possession charges. In multiple stings in the last two
months, eight people were charged with possession of crack cocaine.

These are only some of the 45 people arrested since October by the
Bayou La Batre Police Department's new drug task force. And it's only
the beginning, police say.

During this year's election campaign, Mayor Stan Wright called Bayou
La Batre a "haven for drug dealers," and he promised to clean up the
town by creating a drug task force. When he took office in October,
Wright immediately created the task force. Its members say they've
been putting in 60- to 70-hour workweeks, busting drug dealers, users
and even one rapist and a boat burglar.

"I came in and told them to do whatever is necessary, to use whatever
overtime was necessary, to purchase new equipment and get educated
about drug enforcement," Wright said. "If you just give police
officers just a little of what they need, they can get a lot more
done than somebody might expect."

In its first two months, the task force has made more drug-related
arrests than the entire Bayou La Batre Police Department made in the
previous six months, records indicate. The task force seized more
than 19 ounces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana - not a lot
for some big-city drug busters, but a fair amount for a city of
3,000, said Police Chief Wayne Rabby.

The task force has only two members, Cpl. Darryl Wilson and Sgt. John
Joyner. But they aren't doing the job alone. They regularly work with
officers from the Mobile County Sheriff's Department and the federal
Drug Enforcement Agency, Rabby said.

"People around here know our faces," Joyner said. "We can't go out,
talk to people, make deals undercover. We also need backup if we're
doing a big bust. The DEA guys really have the training and expertise
when it comes to that."

The force also has had the help of Wright, who recently strapped on a
gun and accompanied police on a crack house raid. Wright is a police
academy graduate who served as a reserve officer in Bayou La Batre
for nine years.

Rabby's predecessor, retired Police Chief James Orso, said the key to
running an operation such as the new task force is having the support
of the city administration. Orso retired as chief in August.

"That was always one of our main problems was we only had so much
overtime budgeted for the department, and that was really decided by
the council," Orso said.

The drug problem in Bayou La Batre is as prevalent as it is anywhere
in Mobile County, said Sheriff's Department Cpl. Eddie Blackwell. He
and others in the department's narcotics unit have aided Joyner and
Wilson on several occasions in the last two months, Blackwell said.

The new drug that's moving into Bayou La Batre is methamphetamine,
Joyner said. "Meth" is replacing crack as the drug of choice among
many young users, he said.

Bayou La Batre will have to watch out not only for meth users and
dealers but for manufacturers seeking the precursor ingredients for
the drug. One of those ingredients is ammonia - a chemical that is
used in refrigeration and thus often found in abundance at local
seafood warehouses, Joyner said.

"A lot of the seafood house owners have no idea what the heck someone
would want ammonia for, so they may not report it if a tank comes up
missing," Joyner said. "One of our challenges is educating business
owners about the reasons criminals might want the chemicals they keep
around so they can take appropriate security measures."

Whatever the task force may have accomplished so far is just the tip
of the iceberg, Joyner said.

"ONCE WE GET OUR INTELLIGENCE WORK GOING IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, the
number of arrests we make is going to triple," Joyner predicted.