QUICK-HIT EXPERTS PUT CHILL ON SUBURBAN DRUG HOT SPOTS

Joe Vanacora makes no pretense of being a Santa Claus figure. But the
steady flow of mail he receives from mayors and police chiefs in Illinois
and other parts of the Midwest, all asking for help in the war on drugs,
attests to his popularity as a gift-giver.

He grants their wishes, when he can.

Just ask officials in North Chicago, Kankakee and Aurora and the Midwestern
cities of Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Racine, Wis.; and Ft. Wayne, Ind.

But like any good thing, there isn't always enough to go around. That's a
downside of Vanacora's job as chief of a five-state region for the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, where a team of his undercover agents is
in hot demand.

"I'd like to say `yes, you've got them' to every request I get," Vanacora
said, shuffling a stack of request letters at his desk in the Kluczynski
Federal Building. "These agents are `surgically' very successful, and the
word gets around."

Enter one of Uncle Sam's most sought-after weapons against drug traffickers
in small to mid-size communities: teams of roving, covert investigators who
slip into town, target the bad guys and spend up to 90 days quietly
gathering evidence against them. Then, together with local police, they "go
public" with surprise raids and arrests before moving on to the next town.

The Mobile Enforcement Team approach to jailing smaller dealers, disrupting
their sources of supply and driving down violent crime in Small Town
America appears to have worked even better than its creators envisioned in
1995. There are 24 teams nationwide, assigned mostly to communities where
police lack money and resources to make an impact, but where there is a
backlog of requests for help.

Vanacora, who oversees a dozen of the MET agents in his region, said the
situation could improve next year, as the agency's record of doing more
with less attracts converts among previously skeptical drug war strategists.

In Vanacora's region, which covers Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota
and South Dakota, agents have carried out successful operations in seven
cities and are embarked on an eighth, said Bill Morley, an assistant
special agent with the DEA.

Although law enforcement authorities traditionally have concentrated on
building cases against big dealers, the dealers who traffic in $10 and $20
rocks of crack cocaine and their immediate suppliers are a major target of
agents. Morley said those dealers pose the greatest threat to people and to
the quality of their neighborhoods.

Escalating drug-related violence is a prerequisite in the evaluation
process that determines who gets a team, Morley said.

"We do all the homework before we go in, targeting suspects known as
low-level, violent criminals, but against whom police can't always make a
case for prosecution," he said.

The resources available to federal agents often make a difference.

In addition to the drug agency's undercover expertise, the MET agents tap
an array of video and surveillance equipment to record evidence. To carry
out in-depth investigations, they also have plenty of drug "buy money,"
which most small police departments have in short supply, if at all.

The City of Aurora is a recent beneficiary.

Vanacora dispatched his team to Aurora after Police Chief Larry Langston
pleaded for federal intervention in a letter that said, "gang and drug
activity . . . has reached levels of significant concern (with) our
violent-crime rate."

On Aug. 19, police and federal agents "went public" with the results of
their investigation, in which 51 suspected cocaine dealers were arrested.
Their sources of supply were traced to wholesalers along West 26th Street
in Chicago.

Aurora Police Cmdr. Byron Saum said the crackdown didn't stop with those
arrests and prosecutions. In a followup move to discourage new traffickers,
city inspectors and social agencies enforced building codes and created
neighborhood awareness programs.

Aurora isn't alone in this approach.

In Kankakee, where 68 people were arrested in 1997 after a similar law
enforcement effort was requested by Police Chief William Doster, the city
has moved on two fronts to keep the lid on drug activity. The police
narcotics unit was beefed up, and the city began targeting landlords who
allow drug traffickers to sell from their property.

"We took out and put in prison most of the city's drug-dealing leaders,"
said Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry Beaumont. "Most violent crime is a direct
result of drug activity, and that's down too."

Crime rates fell in North Chicago last year, officials there said, after
MET intervention and the jailing of 22 drug dealers. Police Chief Elisha
Irvin Jr. got the federal team to come to his city by showing that rival
drug gangs were responsible for random "gun battles and drive-by shootings"
there.

Checked-by: derek rea