Terrell rooting out drugs

ONE PERCENT OF POPULATION ARRESTED IN CRACKDOWN

Terrell's smalltown police department got a bigcity boost this month
as federal drug agents helped root out nearly 1 percent of the city's
population on cocainerelated charges.

The cooperative effort between the Drug Enforcement Administration and
local police illustrates the problem the drug war presents to smaller
departments, authorities said.

The 65 midlevel crack and cocaine dealers arrested Tuesday, combined
with two larger dealers from Dallas and more than 40 others indicted
earlier this month, represent about 1 percent of Terrell's population of
more than 12,000.

Proportionately, that would be the same as arresting about 10,000 Dallas
drug dealers at once.

"Terrell police just took a massive tumor and eliminated it through
aggressive police action," said Michael S. Vigil, assistant DEA special
agent in charge. "Now there is a focus to go in there and work with the
community together to ensure that the drug dealing and drugrelated
violence doesn't surface again."

The sixmonth joint effort by Terrell police and the DEA produced the
most arrests in the federal agency's twoyear program of assisting local
departments.

Officials were able to charge some of the drug dealers in Terrell under
federal law, which carries stiffer penalties, because dealing was
occurring near schools, DEA officials said.

Since mid1995, the DEA's Mobile Enforcement Team has helped seven
cities combat drugs: Arlington, Athens, Fort Worth, Greenville, Paris,
Terrell and Wichita Falls.

The purpose of the program, Agent Vigil said, is to help departments
where manpower has been outstripped by drug demand.

"There are departments that have very limited resources, which have just
a few drug agents, and they want to do the right thing but they can't,"
he said.

Terrell, about 30 miles east of Dallas in Kaufman County, qualified for
six months of help from the DEA because of a proven pattern of drug
offenses and drugrelated violence, including several shootings.

Terrell Police Chief Geoffrey Whitt said the community is behind the
massive raids.

"We've arrested a lot of people, but we've got a lot of support from our
residents," he said.

That support will be key as the city prepares to keep drugs out,
authorities say. Police have launched an aggressive public awareness
campaign to teach residents how to identify dealers and users. In
addition, city officials say they plan to tear down or clean up several
dilapidated sites that attract the drug trade.

"Community effort, that's going to be the key to the whole thing," Agent
Vigil said.

Most of the Terrell residents arrested Tuesday got their cocaine from
two Dallas suppliers in powdered form. The midlevel dealers in Terrell
then converted it into crack, which resembles a caramelized hard candy,
by warming the cocaine with baking soda and water. The crack, which is
smoked, was then sold mostly to Terrell street dealers and users,
authorities said.

"We got very structured organizations that have a midlevel dealer in
charge of these networks, with a hierarchy going down to the street
level," Agent Vigil said.

Chief Whitt said he doubts his city's drug problem is worse than any
other city's. "I just think we're admitting we have a problem," he said.