COUNTY'S METH CASES SHOW BIG INCREASE OVER PAST DECADE

Yellowstone County Attorney Dennis Paxinos feels a little overwhelmed
as he reviews the caseload piling up in his office on the seventh
floor of the courthouse.

In the early '90s, only about 300 active felony cases were stacked in
the office files. Now there are more than 1,000.

Most of that threefold increase can be directly linked to
methamphetamine, according to the county's top law enforcement official.

"If we're talking probation violations, parole revocations and our
felony cases, I would say methamphetamine probably touches three out
of four," Paxinos said.

Addicts desperate to support costly habits dominate burglary and
robbery cases, he said. Methamphetamine-generated paranoia drives
violent crime. Guns lurk menacingly alongside stashes of crank.

"It's so addictive, they will do anything for the drug," Paxinos said.
"They have no fear. In their paranoia, they keep guns to protect
themselves."

Paxinos said that two attorney positions in his office are dedicated
to helping clean up the mess addicts make of their families. The
current caseload includes about 600 families - most of them affected
by methamphetamine-induced child abuse or neglect.

Methamphetamine remains the drug of choice in Montana. Billings, as
the commercial hub of a multistate region, is the primary marketplace,
law enforcement officials from various agencies agree. While not all
are willing to accept that the situation in Billings is worse than any
place else, there is no disagreement that it is a major problem with
impacts that touch virtually all aspects of community life.

Meth is cheap, at least in the beginning, and relatively easy to get.
According to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Billings,
methamphetamine typically sells on the street in quarter-gram amounts.
Depending on the quality, the supply and the dealer, price ranges from
$20 to $30.

"It's a poor man's cocaine," said Craig Williams, resident agent in
charge of the DEA office in Billings.

Most customers fall into lower to middle income groups, but users come
from all racial and ethnic groups, he said. Over time, the amount an
addict requires grows, increasing the need for cash. Many end up
dealing drugs to support their habit, according to Williams. Some turn
to other people's property.

Investigators say that much of the methamphetamine that finds its way
to Montana is churned out in "super labs" in California. It travels up
the coast to Oregon and Washington, then east into Montana. One
California lab, taken down as a result of a drug investigation that
began in Montana, regularly turned out 35 pounds per cook, agents
said. Most labs in Montana, by contrast, produce less than an ounce.
Agents said an ounce usually runs between $800 and $1,300.

For a few years in the 1990s, the number of methamphetamine labs
operating in Montana seemed to have waned. In fiscal 1997, DEA took
down only four labs. In 1998, there were nine. But a resurgence seems
to have hit Western Montana. In 1999, agents cleaned out 23 labs. So
far this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, DEA has dismantled 16.

"You can pull methamphetamine recipes right off the Internet,"
Williams said. "The ingredients are easy to get and it's not hard to
make."

DEA has only four agents in Montana, but a fifth is on the way. To
maximize effectiveness, DEA works with other state, local and federal
agencies, Williams said. So does the FBI, according to Dan Vierthaler,
special agent in charge of the Billings office. The FBI provides space
for special city-county units that work a lot of drug cases, and an
agent to work with them.

According to Billings Police Chief Ron Tussing, 95 percent of the
arrests made by members of the special unit are for possession or sale
of methamphetamine.

"It's not because we're ignoring other drugs," he said. "It's because
that's what's out there."

Most of the Police Department's 120 officers are trained in drug
interdiction, according to the chief, and many of the cases worked by
the special unit originate with information gathered by officers on
the street.

A lot of information also comes from the public, he said. Sometimes
citizens who report suspected drug trafficking get a little frustrated
when officers don't show up on the day the call is made, Tussing said.
But that doesn't mean the tip was ignored, he said. It takes time to
make a case.

Tussing is more optimistic than many in the law enforcement community
that some day methamphetamine will lose its allure.

"I am hoping that we have peaked," he said. "I see light at the end of
the tunnel. But here again, we can't get complacent. It's not going to
go down on its own."

Crime statistics are indeed going down in Billings, according to the
chief. Nationally, crime rates started to turn around in 1991, he
said. Billings was a little behind the curve. It didn't start to
decline here until 1998, according to the chief. But even in 1998, the
crime rate for the city was 62 percent higher than the national
average. He estimates that the crime rate in Billings dropped 10
percent in 1999.

"What hurts us is the larcenies, burglaries and auto thefts," Tussing
said. "If you could eliminate the demand for drugs, that could
probably be cut in half tomorrow."

One crime statistic remains especially alarming - aggravated assault.
Tussing said aggravated assault almost always means a weapon was used.
Numbers for 1998 were 361 percent higher than in 1997. They were up
another 38 percent in 1999, the chief said.

Tussing said the declining overall crime rate indicates that his
officers are doing a good job. It may also reflect that some of the
worst offenders are serving federal prison sentences that will keep
them out of circulation until they are very old men, he said. A recent
conviction of one of the city's most notorious drug dealers alone
should account for a drop of a percentage point or two in the crime
rate, he said.