CITY WILL GET HELP TO FIGHT DRUGS

The four major localities in the greater Richmond area are being added to
the federal Washington-Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,
putting drug-fighting law enforcement here in line for hundreds of
thousands of dollars.

"This is terrific news for law enforcement in the Richmond area," said Paul
J. McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Interstate 95, the main north-south artery on the East Coast, runs through
greater Richmond," he said. "It is a hub for moving drugs from Miami and
Atlanta to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York."

Expansion of the Washington-Baltimore area to Richmond and the counties of
Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield means "we will be able to fund regional
strategies that leave drug traffickers nowhere to turn," McNulty said.

The decision to expand was made by the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, which administers 28 HIDTAs across the country, according to the
office of U.S. Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th. The office is authorized to
designate areas that have serious drug-trafficking problems.

Law enforcement within the designated areas assesses those problems and
designs initiatives to attempt to deal with them.

"The goal of HIDTAs is to disrupt drug-trafficking and reduce overall
drug-related crime and violence," according to a statement from McNulty's
office. "They use federal funds to improve the coordination of federal,
state and local responses to drug-trafficking organizations."

McNulty is chairman of the executive board of the Washington-Baltimore HIDTA.

"The expansion of our HIDTA comes at a critical time," McNulty said.
"Methamphetamine abuse is rising throughout the area. Mexican
drug-trafficking organizations in North Carolina have emerged as major
distributors for drugs in Richmond. Open-air drug markets continue to be a
blight on Richmond. The law-enforcement community in greater Richmond will
put these additional resources to good use."