METH-TRADE ZONES DRAW FEDERAL NOTICE

WASHINGTON - California's sprawling Central Valley, long renowned for
its agriculture business, earned a new and more dubious distinction
yesterday from federal authorities: the "epicenter" of the United
States' growing methamphetamine industry.

Mexican-controlled methamphetamine "super labs" have grown so
prevalent in the valley that the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy has named the nine-county region as one of five
"high-intensity" meth-trafficking zones in need of special attention.

The designation means that the valley could receive as much as $2.5
million a year in federal funds, plus extra law-enforcement tools.

Other drug-trafficking zones announced yesterday were Hawaii, a
frequent stopover for high-grade heroin and other drugs from Asia; New
England, a popular pipeline for East Coast drug smugglers; Ohio,
infiltrated by violent street gangs and cocaine dealers in the state's
"Rust Belt"; and Oregon, where methamphetamine has become the "drug of
choice."

All will share in the new federal funding.

The meth trade was once dominated by biker gangs, but Mexican drug
cartels have emerged in recent years to take control of the region,
establishing laboratories in abandoned farmhouses, boarded-up homes
and other remote rural sites, authorities said.