METH LAB BUSTS WAY DOWN, BUT NOT METH ARRESTS

The number of methamphetamine laboratories busted by county drug
agents in 2005 was less than half that of 2004, but the number of
people arrested for using and selling the drug stayed about the same.

Those are among several findings from the Butte Interagency Narcotics
Task Force, which released its 20th annual report this week on the
fight against drugs.

Just 17 labs were seized by BINTF in 2005, compared with 39 in 2004.

However, the number of people arrested on charges of selling and
possessing methamphetamine last year was 225 -- consistent with the
previous four years.

While the use of heroin and cocaine is on the rise locally, those
drugs only figured in 14 narcotics arrests last year. BINTF said
methamphetamine is still the drug of choice in Butte County.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey said the focus of methamphetamine
production has shifted to Mexico, and to a handful of "super labs"
primarily operating in California's central valley.

Ramsey said some of the essential ingredients in meth, including
psuedoephedrine, are getting harder to purchase in the United States
and are being smuggled in from Mexico.

California restricted the sale of cold medicines containing
psuedoephedrine to three packages per customer about four years ago,
and in October will require retailers to keep the cold medications in
a secure area behind a counter.

BINTF operates a north and south division, each with its own
commander. Officers on loan from local law-enforcement agencies,
usually for a year, make up the drug-enforcement team.

In 2005 the task force opened 358 cases and closed 367. Agents served
75 search warrants and arrested 434 people on both drug-related and
nondrug-related charges.

BINTF North Commander Vic Lacey said about 40 percent of those
arrested in 2005 were either on probation or parole.

More significant, according to authorities, is the number of children
county drug agents have pulled from labs, drug-infested homes and
other dangerous environments and placed in protective custody.

That number totaled 145 last year. BINTF agents encountered 233
children in the course of drug investigations last year, down from
the peak in 2004, when 331 children were found to be endangered by
adult drug use or manufacturing.

The county's Drug Endangered Children program, started in 1993, has
become a national model for rescuing children from drug environments.

Ramsey said drug arrests made by BINTF are scattered throughout the
county, with no community or rural area immune from the problem.

Chico accounted for 133 arrests in 2005, Paradise 51, Oroville 47,
Gridley-Biggs 25 and the unincorporated county area 178.

Agents seized assets from suspects totaling about $77,000, and took
152 weapons out of circulation.