$800,000 TO HELP BATTLE LOCAL METHAMPHETAMINE PRODUCTION

Some $800,000 in federal money to fight the spread of methamphetamine will
be used to link nine Central Valley counties by computer.

"The computer system is to enable all (law enforcement) departments to
communicate," Kern County Sheriff Carl Sparks said. "Some counties don't
have the technology they need."

The funding to be used for equipment and operating costs for inter-agency
drug enforcement comes with last month's federal designation of parts of
Central California as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

The designation was officially announced Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Sparks will go to Sacramento today to begin work on an executive committee
overseeing the Central Valley drug-fighting program, which will include
federal, state and local agencies.

Other HIDTAs based on the amount of drug production and trafficking in the
region receive up to $5 million a year to stem the spread of drugs, Sparks said.

"The first year normally is about $800,000 to a million," he said. "The
ensuing years is when the major money comes in."

The region Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, San
Joaquin and Sacramento counties was designated after local lawmakers
petitioned federal officials.

They cited Drug Enforcement Agency statistics showing more than 90 percent
of methamphetamine in the United States is produced in California, with more
than half of that made in the Central Valley.

"This designation allows our law enforcement agencies to attack the
production of this drug at its source," said Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield.

Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Hanford, added that though local agencies do what they
can, "our communities need these additional resources to aggressively combat
the problem."

A bill to create state funding to hire personnel for inter-agency drug
enforcement is being considered in a state Senate committee.