REPORT DETAILS TOLL OF DRUG TRADE

Central Valley, Southern California Lead Nation In Production Of
Methamphetamine, Costing Millions And Shattering Lives

Methamphetamine rots teeth and speeds the aging process, but drug
production remains steady, especially in the Central Valley, according to a
newspaper report. And despite the mounting costs to pursue addicts and
dealers, agents say the expense is worth it.

FRESNO -- The Central Valley and Southern California dominate the nation's
methamphetamine trade, according to a special report published today by the
Fresno Bee, the Modesto Bee and the Sacramento Bee that tallies the costs
and profiles lives shattered by the drug.

The Central Valley, famous for its fertile farmland and rich produce, is
becoming infamous for its role in the production of methamphetamine, and
the drug's toll will be felt by everyone in the region from Redding to
Bakersfield in some way, according to the report.

Last year, state authorities discovered 2,000 methamphetamine or
methamphetamine-related labs, an average of five each day and an almost
fourfold increase over the 559 found five years ago.

The drug -- which is snorted, injected, smoked or ingested -- rots teeth
and speeds the aging process. When authorities pursue suspects, they know
the people they're seeking will not look like they did when they got their
license photos.

"I used to be a pretty gal," said methamphetamine user Jessica Lee Hughes
of Modesto. "Now I'm a dog."

Teeth are missing. Patches of her hair are gone. Blood is still fresh from
sores on the former model's face. She holds up a picture of herself taken
five years ago. It looks nothing like her.

Methamphetamine manufacturers range from superlab drug lords to Beavis and
Butthead'' home brewers. They get recipes from the World Wide Web, or a
183-page textbook by a Wisconsin amateur chemist that sells for $30 and
details how to make "that food of the gods, meth."

It can be made almost anywhere by almost anyone. Most of the
methamphetamine in the Central Valley, however, isn't made by amateurs.
It's made by "families'' with roots in Mexican organized crime.

"It's our belief, based on our experience in the field and talking to other
states, that 90 percent of the meth manufactured in this country is
manufactured by Mexican national drug organizations," said Ron Gravitt,
chief of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement's clandestine lab unit.
"The majority of that is being manufactured in California, and some is
being manufactured in Mexico and smuggled into California and then shipped
throughout the U.S."

A pound of methamphetamine can be cooked for about $2,600 with a mix of
legal and illegal ingredients. The street value is about twice that amount.
If diluted, it could easily sell for about $20,000.

Federal and state agents are focusing on those supplying the illegal
chemicals needed to produce meth. One of those is pseudoephedrine, common
in over-the-counter decongestants but illegal when sold in large quantities.

The costs of cracking down on the methamphetamine trade are enormous. A
case that led to 10 arrests and six convictions will cost more than $2
million for the investigation, prosecution and incarceration.

For veteran law enforcement officers such as Stanislaus County Sheriff Les
Weidman, the cost is worth it.

"If you add up the number of years they are going to spend in prison and
then you add up the number and kinds of things they would be doing on the
street during that time, their drug trafficking and the poisoning of our
children and our waterways and our health system and all the things that go
along with methamphetamine's impact," Weidman says, "'$2 million to put
meth people away for a long period of time? Absolutely."