RURAL LIFE INFECTED BY DRUGS

FLORESVILLE -- For years outsiders have been flocking to this town's
western-style square to take in the sights: the 19th century courthouse,
the two-story renovated brick buildings that surround it and the oversized
peanut statue that pays tribute to the area's most revered commodity.

But beyond the trappings of Floresville's Old West charm lurks an
underworld of drug trafficking and substance abuse, prosecutors say.

Floresville, population 6,300, is hardly alone.

Eighth-graders in rural America are twice as likely as those in big cities
to use amphetamines, including methamphetamines, and 50 percent more likely
to use cocaine, according to a study released in January by the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

So lucrative has the drug trade become locally that authorities have dubbed
Floresville and the Atascosa County cities of Pleasanton and Jourdanton
"The Golden Triangle."

"You've got a lot of demand, and the drug dealers don't have to kill each
other over it because there's not as much supply," said Christopher Taylor,
an assistant district attorney handling drug cases in Wilson, Atascosa,
Karnes, Frio and La Salle counties.

In Floresville, the flow of illicit drugs has diminished somewhat since
authorities rounded up 28 suspected Wilson County dealers in May, cracking
what had been three underworld organizations, prosecutors say.

"You can't find much beside weed right now," an 18-year-old self-described
occasional drug user, who did not want his name used, said in an interview
in Floresville's downtown square.

"They took everybody down. If you want drugs you have to leave this town."

On Monday, Ralph Alfaro, 38, suspected of being the leader of one of three
alleged trafficking groups, is scheduled to go on trial on four felony
charges of narcotics delivery.

Another suspect, Corpus Christi native Leonard Gonzales, 37, is awaiting
trial in November on similar charges. Both have entered not-guilty pleas.

Gonzales is believed to be the leader of the largest of the drug rings,
investigators said. He controlled so much of the local cocaine market that
he could affect the price of the drug on the streets, said Cmdr. Darrell
Newman of the 81st Judicial Task Force.

The pending drug trials have forced many to reflect on a scourge that has
transformed a tight-knit community 31 miles southeast of San Antonio into a
place blemished by urban-style ills.

"I'd say about 75 percent of my older students use drugs," said Gordon
Lindley, a counselor at Floresville Alternative School, which enrolls
nearly 100 students with behavior problems between first and 12th grades.

"Most are weekend users, doing it more out of peer pressure than anything
else," Lindley said.

An undercover agent who frequented Floresville's ice houses, dance halls,
bars and private weekend barbecues during a yearlong investigation that
resulted in the May arrests said drug parties typically lasted all night.

"The guys are doing it; the girls are doing it. Things are so bad in this
small town," said the agent, whose name is being withheld to protect his
identity.

Marilyn Kay Izaguirre, executive director of two substance abuse centers
that serve residents of Wilson, Atascosa, Karnes and Frio counties, said
demand for treatment rises each year.

"Our numbers of people in treatment are increasing by 30 percent a year.
Last year we had 98 people in treatment, and this year, with four months to
go (in the fiscal year), we've got 130 to 140 people" across all age and
class groups, said Izaguirre, head of the Brush Country Council on Alcohol
and Drug Abuse.

Preferences for illicit drugs tend to differ among age groups, Izaguirre
said, with teens in Wilson County preferring methamphetamines and crack,
and adults preferring heroin.

Izaguirre estimates that locally the rate of rural substance abuse among
all age groups is double the national average, with addiction affecting up
to 20 percent of the population in the four-county area she serves. She
says alcohol abuse is an even greater problem in the area.

Jane Maxwell, the lead researcher with the Austin-based Texas Commission on
Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said rates of alcohol abuse statewide are about
equal to urban rates. Rural drug abuse rates in Texas are slightly lower
than urban rates, she said.

Experts say small-town ways present unique challenges for rural treatment
counselors.

"You're dealing with a very self-reliant population, (people) who are used
to hard work and don't typically ask for help," Izaguirre said. "The
feeling is, 'I have to do everything myself. We may be poor, but we're
proud and we don't ask for help.'"

Young people interviewed said the drug problem stemmed in part from a lack
of organized recreation.

Floresville does have its festive events. Private barbecues that turn into
weekend affairs and town gatherings such as the livestock show and the
October Peanut Festival are as popular as football, many say.

The problem is alcohol and often drugs flow freely at these gatherings or
in the informal get-togethers leading up to them.

Some residents blame newcomers for the havoc drugs have caused in their
communities.

Wilson County Commissioner Robert "Bobby" Lynn, who represents the
northeastern section of the county, said bluntly: "We're getting flooded
with people who want to get out of the big cities so they can get their
kids out of trouble. What they don't realize is that their kids come here
with the same problems they had in the cities.

"We're talking about all kinds of people, high-class people, low-class
people, lawyers and doctors. They all want to get out of the city."

The average household income in Wilson County was about $18,000 in 1998.
Low wages undoubtedly are impacted by weak agricultural prices. Nearly
one-fifth of Wilson County's labor force works in agriculture or its
related industries, figures show.

Census records indicate the county's population jumped 43 percent between
1990 and 1999, to 33,000, with a disproportionate growth rate concentrated
in the northern part of the county that adjoins Bexar County.

As they prepare for Floresville's upcoming drug trials, prosecutors say
they remain skeptical the roundups last May will have a permanent impact on
the town's drug trade.

After similar roundups in Pearsall and other communities, drugs "dry up for
a while," Taylor said.

But they always seem to return, brought in by new dealers or by the same
dealers who manage to evade either detection or punishment, authorities say.

Released on bond, a number of the 28 suspects awaiting trial in Floresville
have begun dealing again, the undercover agent said.

"They go back to doing what they know."