OFFICERS RAID RURAL DRUG RINGS

Roundups Target 81 Near Corsicana

CORSICANA, Texas - Federal, state and local authorities say they have
shattered a series of drug rings that they blame for bringing crack cocaine
and related violent crime to the largely rural area southeast of Dallas.

Officials said 81 people were being rounded up Tuesday, 17 on federal drug
conspiracy charges and 64 on state drug possession charges.

Those arrested were part of a growing rural-based drug trade in Texas, said
Paul Villaescusa, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency special agent.

"There was a time when you could move to small-town America and hide from
the drug problem. That has changed," he said.

The bust followed a six-month investigation by Corsicana-area police
agencies supported by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Texas Rangers
and other state agencies.

The roundup began about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and continued throughout the day.
By late Tuesday, 16 of 17 alleged conspirators and 53 of 64 other alleged
traffickers had been arrested, said Dallas DEA Special Agent Paul
Villaescusa.

Among the arrests were one suspect in Dallas and another in Montgomery,
Ala. Their identities were not available Tuesday.

Most of those arrested were area residents who had been dealing for years,
said Don Burron, chief deputy of the Navarro County Sheriff's Office.

Like many smaller cities around the state, Corsicana has assumed the burden
of a crack-cocaine trade network that has fled from larger cities, Agent
Villaescusa said.

"The crack epidemic that struck the large urban areas in the mid-'80s has
since migrated to the small towns," he said.

Since 1995, the DEA has made large drug busts in small Texas cities such as
Mt. Pleasant, Henderson, Greenville, Tyler and Wichita Falls, he said.

The Corsicana investigation identified and shattered six distribution
networks, officials said.

"This is the largest investigation to date within the county involving this
amount of defendants and drugs," Navarro County Sheriff Les Cotten said.

In a joint operation called "Operation Ponderosa Posse," undercover agents
bought about half a pound of crack cocaine and five pounds of marijuana in
a series of drug buys, the DEA said.

Agents ended up seizing more than $5,000 in cash, the DEA said.

"It's not up to the 200 to 300 kilos that you might see in an urban drug
seizure," Villaescusa said. "But to a community like Corsicana, it might as
well be 200 to 300 kilos."

Staff writer David Snyder and The Associated Press contributed to this report.