CRACKDOWN ON DRUGS IS EVERYWHERE

Recent news coverage in the Mirror pointed out that illegal drug
trafficking shows up in some of the least expected places.

On April 30, we took readers along on a ride with a special State Patrol
detail that looks for drugs being smuggled in vehicles on highways. The
instincts of troopers and the practiced nose of a drug-sniffing dog
frequently uncover drugs during what start out as routine stops of speeders
and other traffic violators. About a month earlier, a truck and its driver
on an interstate drug run were nabbed in the parking lot of a business in
Federal Way, so there's no question the stuff is out there rolling around.

Two days after reading about the highway anti-drug patrol, residents on a
normally peaceful cul de sac near Military Road started their morning with
the sight of a heavily armed State Patrol SWAT team clinging to the outside
of an armored vehicle during a raid of a house that was the scene of a
suspected methamphetamine-making operation. As reported in the Mirror May
7, Federal Way Police had been watching the house for a long time, tipped
off partly by surveillance cameras the place had aimed down the street.

Clearly, the illegal drug business is underground in all sorts of ways.
Authorities have their hands full tracking them down, but happily, they're
having some success.