SCOURGE HAS VARIETY OF 'CAPITALS'

The Meth Problem Has Spread From State To State, Defying All Efforts At Law
Enforcement.

Several cities across the United States, from the West to the Midwest
to the South, have been labeled the methamphetamine capitals of the
nation.

National news reports have, at one time or another, proclaimed San
Diego; Sacramento, Calif.; the Kansas City area; Des Moines, and
Little Rock, Ark., as grappling with meth epidemics. As drug busts
headline the nightly news with growing frequency, Iowans may perceive
their hometown meth problems as the worst of all. But in reality,
authorities say, it's difficult to point to specific meth capitals.

The California cities record more arrests and meth addicts in
treatment, though the Justice Department says the numbers continue to
grow in Iowa and elsewhere. Parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois
have been warned this year by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to
brace themselves for the meth problem coming their way.

As meth trafficking has spread west to east, no local, state or
federal law-enforcement agency has been able to curtail it, let alone
stop it.

"Law enforcement is never going to make people stop using drugs," said
Capt. Barry Mayer, commander of the Kansas City Metropolitan
Methamphetamine Task Force. "It's a personal choice; it always will
be."

Some states are hoping tough new laws will help.

The Missouri Legislature this year increased penalties for
distributing, delivering or manufacturing meth. If someone is arrested
within 2,000 feet of a school, hotel or motel, the charge becomes a
Class A felony, which increases penalties to include a prison sentence
without probation or parole.

Iowa Penalties

Iowa laws do not provide for specific penalties if the manufacturing
of methamphetamine is detected in motels or hotels. Neither do Iowa
laws call for mandatory prison sentences without the possibility of
probation or parole for drug offenses.

Iowa Governor-elect Tom Vilsack has proposed a life prison term for
those convicted of selling methamphetamine to minors. He also has said
he'd seek a $4 million annual appropriation for improved law
enforcement, which includes $1.5 million for creating another meth
task force.

"You've got to have good laws," said Mayer, the commander of Kansas
City's methamphetamine task force, who backs the strict penalties on
the Missouri side of the metropolitan area but struggles with weaker
laws on the Kansas side. "The bad guys will use your jurisdictions
against you."

Like Iowa, Missouri also now has a law that allows authorities to
pursue drug investigations across state lines. The law is most helpful
for deputy sheriffs in border counties, who can cross state lines to
find meth dealers or manufacturers.

Authorities from different states have joined forces and have shared
intelligence to level the playing field between police and
sophisticated drug traffickers. Previously, local police and state
drug agents essentially worked in a vacuum, attacking the meth problem
bit by bit but being unable to put together big pieces of the network.

"With these large traffickers, they don't keep themselves to the
boundaries of a city," said Scott Leighter, special agent with the
Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement. "They don't just stay in Des
Moines. They'll be in Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City or Sioux City."

When drug agents from different states work together, Leighter said,
it makes them similar to federal authorities who share information to
follow the drug pipeline from the Mexican border to the Midwest.

"These drug dealers do not limit themselves to state boundaries,"
Leighter said. "The overall goal is we don't want to just get the one
guy in Des Moines. We are working with the agents in other cities to
arrest the whole group."

High-Intensity Region

Iowa is part of a five-state region identified by federal authorities
as a high-intensity methamphetamine area. Last year, Nebraska, Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas

and South Dakota were given $8 million to fund intelligence and
investigation of the meth problem, which has exploded in the past four
years. In 1999, the program will be enhanced in the Des Moines area
and a new task force will be established in Marshall County, officials
say, with resources being funneled toward the U.S. attorney's office
and an improved forensic system to analyze drug evidence quickly.

The Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area has pooled manpower
from local and state law enforcement agencies, forming task forces to
study and attack the areas hardest hit by methamphetamine.

"What we have is a series of regional drug epidemics," said Dave
Barton, who directs the drug-enforcement group's regional office in
Kansas City. "What we try to do is form our enforcement efforts to
attack whatever epidemic is in the community."

Methamphetamine, known on the streets as crank, ice or speed, provides
a cheap but dangerously addictive high. Authorities say it's typically
either smuggled into the Midwest from entrenched Mexican drug cartels
or cooked in secluded, makeshift laboratories.

In Missouri, Barton said, some of the meth supply is smuggled in, but
at least half of the supply is cooked in clandestine labs across the
state. As of Oct. 1, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration had seized more than 640 labs, according to
the Missouri Department of Public Safety, compared with Iowa's latest
count of more than 230 labs this year.

Mexican drug cartels, which often use illegal immigrants as drivers
because they can blend into cities with Hispanic populations, have
established a sophisticated pipeline into Des Moines. Authorities fear
the supply of methamphetamine won't dry up until the demand slows.
Until then, drug authorities in the region say, Iowa will probably
continue to receive drug shipments at a record pace.

"How's it getting to Des Moines? I don't know, or I'd try to stop it,"
said Kansas City's Mayer. "All modes of transportation are being used -
air, rail, single vehicles and the
mail."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry