FRANKLIN COUNTY DRUG TASK FORCE ARRESTS 27

Malone - A county-wide narcotics sweep netted 27 people Tuesday
morning, including several Malone area residents, and led to the
discovery of a high-tech marijuana growing operation in a Saranac Lake
basement.

Six area men from northern Franklin County, including four charged in
grand jury indictments, were arrested shortly after 6 a.m. in a
simultaneous effort by Malone Village Police, U.S. Customs, U.S.
Border Patrol, ST. Regis Mohawk tribal Police, New York Paroles
officers and investigators from the Franklin County District
Attorney's Office.

Malone Village Police investigator Craig Collette said this bust and
one on May 13 both involved arrest in Malone and Saranac Lake.
Collette added there was a link between the county's two largest
population centers.

"There's definitely more of a connection between the two communities
on this one than we've had in the pass," Franklin County District
Attorney Derek Champagne said.

With Franklin County siting astride a major drug corridor in the
northeast, Champagne said the county's drug problems were
multi-faceted.

"Obviously our task force has a lot of different planes that we're
working on," Champagne said.

The district attorney conceded there were indeed large shipments of
drugs making there way south from Canada, and he said drug mules were
sometimes intercepted. He referred to two bust this weekend in Saranac
Lake and Tupper Lake that totaled 147 pounds of marijuana. But he
admitted the more immediate concern for his office was the local drug
trade.

Champagne said drug abuse by area residents has residual side effects
that effect everyone in the county.

"The purpose of the last seven months was to target that local
element," Champagne said.

He said there was no such thing as a typical Franklin County drug
user.

"It's not just the lowest socio-economic class," Champagne said,
"That's the one thing that's really coming to light."

The discovery of an indoor grow operation in a Saranac Lake basement
was an added bonus for the Franklin County Narcotics task force,
several officials said.

"I think it had the capability of producing a fair amount of
marijuana," Champagne said.

Growing equipment and several pounds of processed pot were also seized
at the residents after narcotics task force officials executed a
search warrant.

Champagne said elaborate indoor growing operations present significant
challenges to the enforcement of the state's marijuana laws. Indoor
pot operations can be harvested in a quicker time frame than
traditional outdoor marijuana plots, Champagne said. Indoor growers
also use cloning and hydroponics - a style of growing that forgoes
soil for a water-based solution - to improve the potency of the marijuana.

"We know it's going on and we're trying to address it," Champagne
said.