DRUG THREAT GROWING HERE, REPORT WARNS

From Mexican black tar heroin coming up Interstate 5 to potent "B.C. buds"
crossing the Canadian border and "Nazi" meth labs in Pierce and other
counties, a report released yesterday by the White House drug office
describes a complicated and growing threat from drugs in Washington state.

And while the director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
(HIDTA) program in Washington state said law enforcement agencies haven't
been overwhelmed by the increasing drug trade, they are hard pressed to stem
the flow.

"I wouldn't say we are winning," said Dave Rodriguez, who heads the federal
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program in the state. "But we are much
better organized, we're doing multi-jurisdictional task forces and have
better communication. That's progress."

The White House report, which reviewed the anti-drug trafficking program in
Washington state and in 30 other areas nationwide, concluded that the region
"faces many drug manufacturing and trafficking challenges."

The Northwest zone was established in 1996 as the volume of drugs moving up
I-5 from California and entering Seattle from Southeast Asia began to soar.

Still the number of meth labs in the state has doubled since then, according
to the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy. Drug-related
emergency room visits in Washington are also 50 percent higher than the
national average.

In November, a nine-month investigation of Mexican drug trafficking by the
south Snohomish county Narcotics Task Force led to the arrest of three
suspects in Mulilteo and the seizure of six kilos of cocaine with an
estimated street value of $400,000 and one pound of tar heroin worth about
$44,000.

Police also uncovered a meth lab near Arlington in December 1998 followed by
another near Lake Stevens in March.

Mexican black tar heroin supplies, imported up the I-5 corridor, remain at
"high levels" and led to a record number of heroin overdoses last year in
King County, the report said. Black tar heroin remains the heroin of choice
among the state's addicts, and its use led to 144 deaths in King County in
1998, up sharply from 111 in 1997.

The report said the number of methamphetamine labs dismantled by police this
year in Washington state could reach a record level. Small labs, known as
Nazi labs because the technique for producing methamphetamine was pioneered
by the Nazis during World War II, are "proliferating in apartments, motels
and vans."

"Projections are that nearly 500 labs will be dismantled by year's end,
creating a tremendous drain on law enforcement and environmental cleanup
agencies," the report said.

Rodriguez said Pierce County has been a hotbed of methamphetamine production
and ranks third nationally behind Bakersfield and Riverside counties in
California in the number of labs dismantled by police.

Despite the record number of labs broken up by police, Rodriguez said he was
concerned about indications that larger meth labs designed to produce
quantities suitable for national distribution may be appearing in Washington
state. One such lab was recently dismantled in the Yakima Valley, and two
others were busted up in Oregon, he said.

The smaller labs usually found in the state can produce anywhere from two
ounces to eight ounces of meth in each run. A national-sized lab can "cook"
50 pounds at a time, Rodriguez said.

As for marijuana, the White House report said, there has been a "dramatic
increase" in the importation of Canadian grown marijuana and cross-border
smuggling.

Rodriguez said the marijuana, known as B.C. buds, was extremely potent and
sells in the Seattle area for $3,000 to $4,000 a pound and in California for
up to $6,000 a pound. Mexican marijuana sells on the street for about$600 to
$900 a pound, he said.

Canadian law enforcement officials have estimated that the marijuana is
being grown indoors at more than 2,400 sites in British Columbia, Rodriguez
said, adding that each plant can produce more than three pounds of the
high-quality drug.

The White House report said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have estimated
annual marijuana production in Canada at more than 800 tons and that
Italian- and Asian-based gangs made more than $12 billion from its sale.

In addition, the report said, the "Hells Angel Outlaw Motorcycle gang is
smuggling marijuana into the United States and it crosses nearly all land
border points."

So-called "mother ships" carrying tons of marijuana have been found in
Northwest waters. Last year, Rodriguez said, three vessels carrying 14 tons
of hashish were caught off the British Columbia coast in a case that
originated in Pierce County.

Even sea kayaks have been used to smuggle marijuana across the border from
Canada into the United States, he said.

The ports of Tacoma and Seattle may also be important entry points for
illegal drugs, the White House report said.

Overall, the report said, law enforcement agencies have identified 60 drug
trafficking organizations that pose a criminal threat in the state's High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

Created in 1997, the area covers seven counties: Pierce, King, Snohomish,
Thurston, Skagit, Whatcom and Yakima.

The 31 areas nationwide were selected not just because of the flow of drugs
into their communities but because the drugs were shipped to other places.

The program has become one of the foundations of the White House's war on
drugs.