VALLEY ASKING FOR FUNDING TO STOP METH

WASHINGTON -- The Central Valley's new federal anti-drug task force is in
line to get 75 percent more money.

Though it only recently got its formal start with $800,000, the task force
is being recommended for an immediate increase to $1.4 million. A formal
decision on the funding increase, which is being recommended by the staff of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is expected within days.

"We considered $800,000 to be significantly under-funded," said Bill
Ruzzamenti, director of the valley's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
program. "We have a real strong case that we need more money."

The same case has also been made by members of Congress, who championed
creation of the federal program to fight methamphetamine in nine counties
spanning the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Having secured the initial
funding last year, the lawmakers have since been pushing for increases.

"The national importance of targeting enforcement aid to the Central Valley
is clear," Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Hanford, advised drug czar Gen. Barry
McCaffrey on Monday. "The valley's methamphetamine labs supply much of the
western United States. ... By targeting more supply reduction aid in the
Central Valley, we can help reduce the supply of meth across the nation."

The requests are nonpartisan. Republican Reps. Doug Ose of Sacramento and
George Radanovich of Mariposa have joined Democrats Dooley and Gary Condit
of Ceres in urging congressional colleagues to approve a further increase to
$2.5 million for next year.

Congress eventually will decide whether to grant that increase as part of
the overall fiscal 2001 budget that will be complete by October. The funding
for the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area is part of
nationwide program that now costs $192 million and is supposed to focus
federal anti-drug resources on 31 critical needy areas.

The immediate $687,000 increase for the valley program now being recommended
needs only McCaffrey's signature. The money would be used to build
operations at the valley trafficking area's four offices in Sacramento,
Modesto, Fresno and Bakersfield.

"It allows us to actually get to work getting computers, building out space
... it makes things a lot better," Ruzzamenti said. "Right now, we have
(officers) sitting in conference rooms."

Ruzzamenti is a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who became
the valley program's first director in January. Along with an assistant and
a fiscal officer, he currently works out of the DEA's office in Fresno while
new quarters are prepared on E Street for the state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement.

The federal program, though, is not intended as a new cadre of federal
agents. Rather, it's supposed to help coordinate and target the ongoing
anti-drug efforts -- in particular, the anti-meth efforts -- of more than a
dozen valley law enforcement agencies. For instance, earlier this month the
agencies became hooked up to a Southern California computer system, so that
various valley meth-fighting operations could avoid conflict.

"We hit the ground running in January," Ruzzamenti said. "This is a
target-rich environment."