FEDS TO HELP FIGHT VALLEY'S DRUG TRADE

Program Coordinates Efforts Among Agencies.

Drug cartels beware: The Iron Triad is coming.

International drug traffickers looking to unload their poison in
Merced County will have to contend with a new challenge in January --
a task force that combines federal, state and local resources.

Sheriff Mark Pazin, Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II
and Merced Police Chief Russ Thomas met with federal Drug Enforcement
Administration officials and others to put the final touches on the
North Valley High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).

Pazin said he'd been pursuing the HIDTA grant funds for about five
years. "What this does is bring in a federal component that's been
long overdue in Merced County," Pazin said. "This really puts
together an iron triad in the war on methamphetamine."

The North Valley HIDTA task force will be funded over a three-year
period with $500,000 in federal Office of National Drug Control
Policy grants, Pazin said. It will comprise at least six officers
from the Merced County Sheriff's Department, Mariposa County
Sheriff's Department and DEA.

The dollars will primarily go toward equipment and overtime pay, Pazin said.

The force will be supervised by the state's Bureau of Narcotic
Enforcement. It will work hand-in-hand with the existing Merced
Multi-Agency Task Force, Central Valley HIDTA and other agencies in
pursuing drug traffickers.

While the Merced Multi-Agency Task Force will continue to target the
illicit sales, use and transportation of drugs, the North Valley
HIDTA team will target clandestine meth labs -- and the drug
trafficking organizations south of the border behind their operations.

Pazin and others said the new task force is key because Merced County
routinely ranks among the top areas in the state, in terms of meth
lab-related incidents. "We can certainly use the bodies to do a more
focused enforcement here," Morse said.

"My hope is that we will put a significant dent, if not eliminate,
clandestine labs in Merced County," Thomas said.

William Ruzzamenti, executive director of Central Valley HIDTA, said
rural areas like Merced County are typically a target for
international drug-trafficking organizations because their minions
can operate in relative anonymity compared to urban areas, where law
enforcement tends to be more concentrated. "We hope to identify
organizations that are behind these meth labs and prosecute them,"
Ruzzamenti said.

Meth lab-related incidents increased significantly in Merced County
this year, with 78 lab dumps and 12 meth labs reported. Nine of those
labs were meth super labs, capable of producing 25 pounds or more of the drug.

Last year, the county reported 52 lab dumps and two meth labs,
according to the Merced County Sheriff's Department.

Law enforcement in Merced County also discovered more marijuana grows
this year, with 29 gardens reported, compared to 12 last year. "I am
not going to be Pollyannaish and say that we're going to zero it
out," Pazin said. "But I am tired of Merced County being second or
third (in the state) when it comes to lab-related incidents."

Morse and others say they're hopeful that the country's financial
crisis won't affect the new task force. Morse said Vice
President-elect Joseph Biden has historically been a HIDTA ally,
which can only be a boon to the program locally. "We are hopeful that
his influence will be helpful in keeping this up and running," Morse said.

The federal government's HIDTA program devotes federal funds to
regional drug-fighting efforts, providing agencies with coordination,
equipment, technology and additional resources, according to the
Office of National Drug Control Policy's Web site.

There are already 28 similar HIDTA efforts nationwide, with the
federal government spending about $225 million a year to coordinate
federal, state and local law enforcement campaigns.