ST. PATRICK'S DAY CRACKDOWN YIELDS 'GREAT DEAL' OF DRUG ARRESTS

HARDEEVILLE -- Motorists driving into South Carolina from Georgia were
greeted at 8 a.m. Friday by an undercover police car in the median on
Interstate 95. For the next 9 miles, thousands of vehicles passing through
in the mid-morning hours could see more than a dozen marked and unmarked
cruisers on the interstate, as 75 police officers and 16 state, federal and
local agencies from across South Carolina completed the final hours of a
three-day crackdown on lawbreakers and drug runners.

The goal of the operation, with synchronized manpower authorities said was
unprecedented for the area, was universally billed by law enforcement as an
opportunity to keep roads safe from drunken drivers and speeders during the
St. Patrick's Day week.

Many of the participating agencies present were focused on drug
interdiction and, although numbers were unavailable Friday, the effort
produced "a great deal" of drug-related arrests and seizures, officials said.

The effort included representatives from six of South Carolina's seven drug
interdiction teams, as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency and Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The operation meant there were four police officers per linear mile in
Hardeeville, patrolling I-95, U.S. 17, U.S. 278, U.S. 321 and S.C. 46, said
Rob Dewig, spokesman for the city.

The largest traffic-stop drug seizure yielded 35 grams of crack, said Chief
Deputy Roy Hughes of the Jasper County Sheriff's Office.

"It's meant to be a big deterrent to people not to drink and drive," Hughes
said of the operation, "and it's also to help with the greater traffic
volume in our area."

Dewig estimated that officers wrote twice as many tickets this year as the
105 citations written in last year's first annual two-day St. Patrick's Day
weekend operation. Officials did not seize any significant amount of drug
money, as they did in last year's two-day St. Patrick's Day weekend
operation when they seized $93,038.

Officers from the State Transport Police and Department of Homeland
Security checked truck load weights at stations on U.S. 17 and I-95. Many
truck drivers were cited for violations ranging from carrying loads that
were too heavy to driving without a license. The Department of Health and
Environmental Control was on hand to inspect loads of seafood.

The S.C. Highway Patrol also planned to continue its stepped-up patrols
through the weekend. Highway Patrol in an unrelated effort had added six
motorcycle units and four drug-interdiction patrol cars to the same area.

"Drug money is good and all that, but what we're looking at is keeping
those drunken drivers off the road," said Sid Gaulden, spokesman for the
S.C. Department of Public Safety.