OPERATION RATTLESNAKE SINKS FANGS INTO METH PLAGUE

PEKIN -- In the four-month period from October 2002 to February 2003,
four men were treated for serious burns suffered in fires caused by
the operation of methamphetamine labs in Pekin.

One year later, no one in Pekin has suffered injury in a meth lab fire
- -- because Pekin hasn't had any meth lab fires this winter. Neither
has Tazewell County seen any meth lab fires about a year.

Pekin Deputy Chief of Police Ted Miller says that is just one of many
dramatic and positive changes brought about by the work of Tazewell
County's federal anti-meth task force known as Operation Rattlesnake,
which was formed just one year ago.

According to Miller, Pekin saw far fewer meth-related arrests in 2003
than in the year before. In addition, both arrests and offenses
reported in Pekin dropped last year.

From 2002 to 2003, Pekin's arrests for possession of a controlled
substance dropped 72 percent, while arrests for manufacture of a
controlled substance dropped 41 percent.

Also last year, Pekin's arrests for all kinds of crime show a 16
percent drop, while offenses reported dropped 11 percent, Miller said.

Miller attributes these good numbers to the arrest and conviction of
what he calls the county's "key players." That in turn has led others
involved in meth to be more careful, or to move to neighboring
counties, he said.

With less meth activity in Pekin and the county, the overall crime
rate is dropping, since crime is often connected to drug addiction,
Miller said.

"Obviously I can't attribute everything to the task force, and I
don't. We also have had excellent enforcement work on all fronts by
our regular officers. But there's no doubt about the positive impact
the task force has had. They're taking the core right out of the
apple," Miller said.

The task force is made up of agents from the U.S. Attorney's Office,
the Pekin Police Department, the Tazewell County Sheriff's Department,
the Tazewell County State's Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement
Agency, the Illinois State Police and the Multi-County Narcotics
Enforcement Group.

So far, Operation Rattlesnake's work has resulted in 18 federal
indictments and six convictions.

The latest indictment, on Jan. 21, was unsealed Tuesday. Jeremy Boker,
26, of 1208 Timber Lane, is charged with conspiracy to manufacture
methamphetamine, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's
Office.

Miller said the task force hopes to replicate the success of Fulton
County's anti-meth task force, which convicted 30 people without
having to go to trial even once.

Tazewell County State's Attorney Stewart Umholtz announced the
formation of the task force soon after a devastating meth lab fire,
destroyed an apartment building at 1412 S. 14th St. on Jan. 7, 2003,
displacing eight families and injuring 12 people.

"The State's Attorney's Office has coordinated and cooperated with
(the task force) excellently," Miller said, consulting with Operation
Rattlesnake to decide which cases to try in state court and which
cases should be tried in federal court.

According to Assistant Tazewell County State's Attorney Michael Green,
from 2002 to 2003 the county filed 63 percent fewer cases of
possession of controlled substance and 77 percent fewer cases of
manufacture of a controlled substance.

The county only had eight meth manufacturing cases in all of 2003.