POLICE SAY DRUG USE GROWING IN LINCOLN

County's Population Expansion, Better Supply Lines Blamed for Increase
in Arrests

When a drug task force in Lincoln County seized about $1.1 million
worth of marijuana about a week ago, police officers said they weren't
surprised.

Law enforcement officials said they've seen a big increase in drugs in
the last couple of years in Lincoln County but hadn't found the
stashes. A drug task force made up of five members from the Lincolnton
and Maiden police departments and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office
expect the problem to worsen.

"When I first started, if you had an ounce of marijuana, you really
thought you were doing something," said Lincolnton Police Chief Dean
Abernathy, who worked drug cases before becoming chief. "Now, pounds
of marijuana and kilos of cocaine are nothing unusual."

Demand is growing and availability is getting easier, he
said.

Recent interviews with suspects revealed that loads of marijuana and
cocaine are coming straight from Mexico, not through a middleman,
Abernathy said.

"It's a direct pipeline," he said.

Authorities expect methamphetamine cases to rise as the drug spreads
eastward across the Carolinas.

In March, the drug task force raided a home in west Lincoln County and
seized about 13 ounces of methamphetamine, worth about $25,000. A
month later, they arrested a Lincolnton woman and charged her with
possessing meth after police said she left the house of a suspected
drug dealer in west Lincoln County.

An increase in population also accounts for the spike in drug deals
and usage, said Lt. Ronnie Matthews with the Lincoln County Sheriff's
Office. It grew 27 percent since 1990 to 64,000 people, according to
the 2000 U.S. Census.

"We're growing by leaps and bounds," he said. "The more people you
have, the more you grow, the more crime."

In addition to the drug task force projects, police departments in the
area are concentrating on manning the streets in well-known drug
areas. The Lincolnton police department didn't create a street
interdiction team until Abernathy was named chief in October 2003.
Before, they simply depended on the drug task force.

Lincoln County sheriff deputies, meanwhile, are targeting McIntosh
Road, southeast of Lincolnton. Earlier this week, they set up a
checkpoint there and seized 27 grams of crack cocaine, $1,300 and
three handguns from one car, Matthews said.

The task force meets every day and updates which people or areas
they're targeting, but there's no guarantee the drug trafficking will
lessen, said Lt. Tracy Ledford with the Maiden police department. The
city is located about 10 miles north of Lincolnton.

"You curb it in one place and take bodies off the street, (then)
there's someone waiting behind them to take their place," he said. "We
put a substantial dent in the drug problem, but it's going to be there."