AROUND HERE, METH BUST NO DROP IN BUCKET

It certainly wasn't Albuquerque's "French Connection," nor even,
perhaps, much of a Mexican connection.

But in the crime-ridden realm of illegal drug trafficking and using,
it should at least be one heck of an inconvenience.

At the end of the day, last week's area-wide meth raid bust -
organized by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department - we hope
will put more than a dent in local methamphetamine drug trafficking.

We all can hope it leaves a gaping hole, despite the assessment of
seasoned federal Drug Enforcement Agency Agent Evelyn Kilgas that it
will hardly be noticed by the Mexican cartels that furnish the drugs
confiscated in the raid.

As Tribune Reporter Maggie Shepard detailed Friday in "Meth raid 'a
drop in the bucket,' DEA says," the raid produced some impressive numbers.

Sheriff's deputies raided 25 homes, mostly in Albuquerque, arresting
24 people on 31 warrants, and confiscated 2 pounds of
Mexican-produced meth worth about $250,000 on the street. Deputies
broke down the arrests as including five ring leaders, two main
distributors, nine street sellers and more than a dozen users.

Not a bad day's work, considering the ramifications of removing that
quantity of drugs from the local streets, putting several drug
players into the judicial system and making it a bit harder for
users to score.

As Sheriff Darren White told Shepard, users are not inconsequential
to the drug enforcement equation.

"They are the ones breaking into homes and stealing cars to feed
their addiction," he explained.

It's instructive to examine a city map created by Tribune artist
Charlotte Hill Cobb, on which the homes of the meth suspects who
were arrested Thursday morning are pinpointed. They are relatively
evenly distributed across the city, which suggests that drug traffic
is part of the whole city's fabric.

Indeed, suspected ring leader Jason Matthews, 27, lived near a
school, which under law is a drug-free zone violation, which carries
additional, stiffer penalties.

All of which should make us cheer, in a nervous sort way, because
while we'd all like to think that illegal drugs are somebody else's
problem, the tale of this successful bust suggests otherwise.

Still, success can be a relative term. As Kilgas observed, "For them
(the Mexican cartels) this is a drop in the bucket. This is the cost
of doing business. Two pounds? This is an acceptable loss for them."

The obvious question is: What's an unacceptable loss, and why can't
law enforcement cause more of those?

The answer is just as obvious. As Shepard reported, the bust
involved a lot of work: It was the result of a yearlong
investigation in which detectives used wiretaps, surveillance and
other techniques to establish the drug-ring leadership.

Which brings us full circle. Bringing down this small meth ring may
not get more than a shrug from the Mexican drug cartels, but across
Albuquerque's neighborhoods, it is likely to pay some handsome
anti-drug dividends.