METH CRACKDOWN

About three years ago, the drug "crank" became a problem in Moore
County. Now there's a new sheriff in town.

Sheriff Lane Carter and his deputies say they're putting crank, or
methamphetamine, dealers out of business. This year alone, the
department's narcotics unit has confiscated about three pounds of the
drug.

Three pounds in just over four months is a large amount of this drug,
which is usually measured in grams.

"We've had an impact on it," says Detective Lt. W.J. Seawell, head of
the Sheriff's Department Narcotics Unit.

But the Sheriff's Department hasn't eradicated methamphetamine abuse
in Moore County. It's still probably the third-most-abused drug,
behind marijuana and cocaine.

It is too soon to celebrate. Officers are now playing the waiting game
to see if new dealers are going to fill the vacuum.

Carter attacked the problem immediately upon taking office. He
increased the number of deputies in the narcotics unit from two to
five and named Seawell to head the group. The increased manpower
allowed deputies to target methamphetamine trafficking.

"The increased success is because of the increased number of narcotic
officers," Seawell says.

Methamphetamine use has been focused in the middle to northern part of
the county, extending into Chatham and Randolph counties. The drug has
been found mostly in rural areas, and the Sheriff's Department has
found that most of the major traffickers of the drug in Moore County
come from the Hispanic community.

In April, deputies arrested two men whom Seawell described as
"couriers." Ricardo Rios Angulo, 22, and Augustin Meraz Meraz, 20, had
driven up from Coker, Ala. Officers believe they were transporting
methamphetamine to the northern part of the county, where the drugs
were to be distributed.

Deputies seized 11/2 pounds of methamphetamine and the 1998 Chevrolet
Venture mini-van the two were driving. The methamphetamine has a
street value of $52,000, according to the Sheriff's Department.

In March, a six-month undercover operation led to the arrests of two
Robbins men on methamphetamine charges. This time, deputies say, they
observed a methamphetamine deal go down.

Acting on a tip, deputies watched the home of Everardo Cuardo Salas,
37, on Tyler Lane in Robbins. On March 11, deputies say, they
witnessed Ricardo Naranjo Godina, 32, arrive and purchase drugs.

When Godina left, a deputy followed him, pulled over the Ford Ranger
pickup truck he was driving, and found methamphetamine in the vehicle,
according to the Sheriff's Department.

Deputies say they raided Salas' house and found 11 ounces of
methamphetamine packaged for sale at the edge of the woods on the property.

Making A Dent

"There's been an emphasis put on the northern part of the county and
the meth dealers," Seawell says. "We've made several of what I would
call good arrests."

There have been other successful investigations as well that led to
dealers outside the county. Those arrests have impacted the amount of
methamphetamine available on Moore County streets.

Carter's deputies gathered information on a methamphetamine dealer in
Chatham County that led to an arrest and the seizure of a half-pound
of the drug. They also initiated a case that led to an arrest of a
Randolph County man on trafficking of methamphetamine charges.

All of which reduced the supply in Moore County.

"There's been a decline on the street level," Seawell says. "The
problem is not as bad."

So far, methamphetamine seems to be connected to the rural areas in
the northern part of the county. And many of the arrests have been of
people from the Hispanic community.

Carter and Seawell would not speculate on why the drug has been linked
to the Hispanic community in Moore County.

Poor Man's Cocaine

Methamphetamine is an odorless powder, typically white, that dissolves
in water. It's commonly known as meth, poor man's cocaine, crystal
meth, ice, glass or speed, according to a fact sheet on
methamphetamine from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Methamphetamine can be injected, snorted, smoked or - as is happening
in some Asian communities in California - taken in pill form called
yaba, a Thai name.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant. It's certainly nothing new. It's the
same drug truck drivers used to take in the 1970s and '80s to stay
awake during a long haul.

It is addictive and seems to be associated with aggressive behavior
and can even cause brain damage, according to the Office of National
Drug Control Policy. Methamphetamine use can also cause anxiety,
confusion, insomnia, auditory hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.
The brain damage caused is similar to Alzheimer's disease, stroke or
epilepsy.

Methamphetamine is produced by a combination of several chemicals,
which sometimes can be volatile. There are several different ways to
produce the drug, says Rob Bailess, special agent in the Raleigh Field
Office of the DEA, an expert in methamphetamine producing labs. One of
the ways to produce the drug is called the "Nazi method." It uses
anhydrous ammonia, which can become explosive when compressed.

Another way of making the drug uses red phosphorus, which when heated
could become very flammable or volatile, Bailess says.

Most of the methamphetamine in the country comes from clandestine labs
in California and Mexico, according to the DEA fact sheet. Labs in the
United States that produce the drug are dependent on a supply of
pseudoephedrine, which is often bought or stolen from drugstores,
Bailess says.

Hispanic Connection

Pseudoephedrine is also smuggled from Canada and Mexico. There is a
connection between methamphetamine and Hispanics along traditional
smuggling lines, Bailess says. But he says it would be wrong to say
there is a strong link between this drug and the Hispanic community.

"Methamphetamine crosses all lines," he says. "It's not one
group."

Although Moore County deputies have found the major traffickers in the
Hispanic community, the drug filters down to other people, Seawell
says. More recent immigrants in the local Hispanic community may not
realize that they are breaking the law by acting as couriers, Carter
says. Some methamphetamine dealers are using Hispanics to move the
drug.

"They're mostly runners," Carter says. "They just deliver
it."

Even if they do know it's illegal, Carter says, they often have no
idea how stringent the penalties are.

Carter is somewhat perplexed by the proliferation of the drug, because
methamphetamine charges carry lengthy prison sentences in North Carolina.

A person convicted of possessing more than 28 grams of the drug can
get a 70-month prison sentence. That's nearly six years.

Possession of more than 400 grams requires a minimum sentence of 225
months, or almost 19 years. In addition, each charge comes with a
$250,000 fine.

"With marijuana, you can have 500 pounds of it before you face this
type of time," Carter says.

Supply And Demand

The lure of dealing methamphetamine comes down to dollars,
law-enforcement officers say.

"The dollar value is higher," Carter says. "It's always about
dollars."

It is also a matter of supply and demand. There is a demand for
methamphetamine. Because it can be produced from legal chemicals and
doesn't have to be smuggled across borders, there is a supply.

Sheriff's deputies have reduced the supply but probably not the
demand. That's why deputies are being watchful, wondering whether it
is only a matter of time before another big methamphetamine dealer
emerges in the area.

The national war on drugs has driven up the price on other more widely
abused substances, like marijuana and cocaine, but not
methamphetamine.

"(Methamphetamine) is cheaper than cocaine, and it can be made in
labs," Carter says, so there is no danger of being caught smuggling
the drug across borders.

It is possible that a methamphetamine lab is operating somewhere in
Moore County, Seawell says.

Carter said in an interview last November, before assuming office,
that he believed there was at least one methamphetamine lab in Moore
County. But that was before he increased the size of the narcotics
unit from two officers to five.

The new unit hasn't found any evidence that a lab exists here. But
there are definitely methamphetamine labs in parts of North Carolina,
according to Bailess of the DEA. The agency has already found and shut
down 50 labs this year, and the number increases weekly.

The majority of the labs have been found in North Carolina's mountain
region and in Johnston, Harnett and Sampson counties, Bailess says.
Harnett County borders Moore County.

Dangerous Labs

At least one methamphetamine lab may have gone up in smoke in a fire
last year, according to the Sheriff's Department. Deputies
investigated an explosion last year at what Carter believes was a lab.

"We had one blow up one night," he says.

The suspect claimed he was reloading shotgun shells in a storage shed.
Deputies could not charge the man with anything because all of the
evidence burned.

Most people operating labs get arrested because their neighbors turn
them in, Bailess says. They know about the labs because there is often
a smell associated with the production of methamphetamine. Ammonia,
for one, is an extremely pungent chemical.

Some of the gases produced can be lethal, says Bailess.

The chemicals required to make methamphetamine are so volatile that
even if deputies were to find a lab, they would have to call in the
State Bureau of Investigations to collect the evidence.

Methamphetamine labs are considered environmentally hazardous as well.
Dealing with a lab means bringing in the Environmental Protection
Agency and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Such
strict guidelines exist because a methamphetamine lab is considered a
hazardous waste site.

"We don't have the technology or the know-how to collect it," Carter
says.

If anyone thinks they have information on a possible methamphetamine
lab, Bailess says, they should contact the SBI or local law
enforcement. He also suggested that shopkeepers at farmers markets
keep a watch on anhydrous ammonia tanks and observe people who are
buying them. Methamphetamine producers usually buy the tanks or steal
them, Bailess says.

He added that shopkeepers should report any theft of lithium batteries
or pseudoephedrine tablets to the authorities.

Specific to this area, dealers in equine supplies should be aware that
iodized crystals, used to doctor horse hooves, could also be used in
the production of crystal meth.

Last year, sheriff's deputies were developing some leads that they
thought might take them to a lab in Moore County. But the information
has since dried up, which is surprising considering how deputies have
targeted methamphetamine dealers.

"The majority (of methamphetamine) arrives here in Moore County
already manufactured," Seawell says. "But there's always the
possibility of a lab."

Right now, methamphetamine is still causing a problem for
law-enforcement officers, despite the inroads deputies have recently
made. Investigators have no idea if the methamphetamine trafficking
community will reorganize itself, or if another drug will become popular.

Deputies are resigned to wait and work together with other counties
law officers and the state officials.

"They (drug traffickers) don't know county lines," Seawell says. "This
continues to be a problem for us."