EAST TEXAS DRUG WARRANT SWEEP CLEANUP CONTINUES

As the dust settles after Wednesday's federal warrant sweep, local
authorities are left to sweep up.

But little relief is expected from the cleanup of Operation Wide Open,
however, as law enforcement officers on Thursday continued tracking
down the remaining suspects sought in dozens of state and federal drug
warrants.

At the request of Smith County's sheriff, the Drug Enforcement
Administration last year joined local authorities in helping
investigate and infiltrate a growing number of East Texas drug
trafficking rings.

As of Wednesday, authorities had linked more than 70 people to the
illegal activity. Convictions for some defendants could result in life
sentences and millions of dollars in fines, officials said.

"As we speak, there are only seven people who have not been arrested
or have turned themselves in," said Maj. Mike Lusk, Smith County
Sheriff's Office.

Hearings in state and federal courtrooms are expected to continue
until next week.

Identities of all those arrested will be released after their
arraignment in court.

Meanwhile, at Smith County Jail, authorities are looking for space for
the continuing flow of arrestees.

"If they bring them to jail, we have to find a place for them," said
Capt. Gary Pinkerton. "As of Thursday, we were at 749 - we have space
for 756. We're going to have to handle them, one way or another."

That could prove challenging in the coming days.

A day after the areawide raid, Sheriff J.B. Smith expressed no plans
for a slowdown.

"We've worked on this project for months," said Sheriff J.B. Smith.
"It actually began around a year and a half ago after we began seeing
trends in our crimes. We were talking to our patrolmen, who were
seeing connections between many crimes.

"We found about 80 percent of all violent crimes in our area - rape,
armed robbery, murder, burglary and theft - were directly linked to
drugs," the sheriff said. "We were really troubled by what we saw.
Yesterday was just the beginning - we're not finished."

Concerned over how to battle the growing frequency of these violent
crimes and drug arrests, the sheriff and his officers last year sought
federal aid to deal with the problem.

Requesting and receiving aid were two different things,
however.

Officials said they had to first demonstrate to federal authorities
there was collaboration between the two.

"Drugs had become the scourge of our society," Smith said. "It was
affecting our communities and our families. We knew something had to
be done, but as a small agency, we just didn't have enough resources
to do it."

With the assistance of local DEA officials and others, sheriff's
officials produced volumes of investigative data to support the
request for assistance.

Federal officials agreed there was a tremendous drug problem in Smith
County and approved the additional aid, officials said.

A team of DEA agents comprising the MET team, short for Mobile
Enforcement Team, arrived in December, bringing personnel and funding
available to infiltrate several pockets of top-ranking drug
distributors, officials said.

Working with sheriff's detectives and other law enforcement officials,
agents helped identify suspects and build cases against them, spending
in excess of $175,000 in federal dollars to conduct controlled drug
buys.

Through the course of the nine-month long investigation, authorities
seized large quantities of crack cocaine, hydrochloride,
methamphetamine, ephedrine, Xanax, ecstasy, marijuana, multiple
gallons of meth oil, one working lab, several weapons and about
$47,000 in cash, officials said.

On Wednesday, the fruits of their labors emerged.

An early morning roundup conducted by 150 federal and local officers
struck in a simultaneous, countywide warrant sweep.

Tyler Police Department and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, IRS, U.S. Marshals Service and
Northeast Texas Narcotics Task Force joined to help complete the project.

Twelve of 14 people indicted on federal drug or conspiracy charges
were taken into custody during the 6 a.m. area roundup; most of the
remaining 64 sought on state indictments surfaced by day's end.

On Wednesday alone, authorities seized stolen weapons, $2,770 in cash,
a large amount of marijuana and a vehicle used to carry out drug
transactions.

Officials called the probe a "dramatic accomplishment" for federal,
state and local agencies and East Texas.

"This coordinated effort shows the success that can be achieved when
resources and people are pooled together," said Matthew D. Orwig, U.S.
Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. "The disruption and
dismantling of conspiracies like these will continue to be a top
priority of law enforcement in East Texas."