TASK FORCE TAKES ON DRUG CRIMES

The New River Regional Drug Task Force seized an estimated $653,960 worth of
cocaine, marijuana, ecstacy, prescription pills and other illegal substances
last year.

CHRISTIANSBURG - No one expected to find a stash of illegal drugs inside
Christiansburg High School.

Town police, narcotics dogs, school administrators and members of the New
River Regional Drug Task Force checked anyway during an hour-long drug sweep
last Tuesday morning.

As expected, they found nothing. Nothing at the high school. Nothing at
Christiansburg Middle School later that afternoon.

"Juveniles aren't typically big dealers, but they are users," said Kevin
Tucker, a Christiansburg officer assigned to the task force, a group of five
specially trained officers assigned to handle hundreds of drug cases each
year. "They're in their experimental stage, so this is definitely a
deterrent for them."

In the realm of drug crimes, deterrents can be just as important as arrests.
The reality of drug crimes is this: No matter how many dealers police take
off the streets, the problem never goes away.

"We know that when we take somebody off the street, most often we have
created a job opening for someone else to come in and take over," said
Special Agent H.A. Spahr of the Virginia State Police, the task force's
coordinator. "Then our process will start over again."

It's been that way as long as illegal drugs have flowed into the New River
Valley.

In 1991, Montgomery County's police agencies decided to band together to
deal with the problem, creating the regional drug task force. Today, the New
River Regional Drug Task Force is one of 28 under the umbrella of the
Virginia State Police. Another four Virginia

task forces are affiliated with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.

"It's about being able to pool our information together," said Virginia Tech
Police Chief Debra Duncan. "It's not just a problem that's on campus or in
the town of Blacksburg or in Christiansburg. It's a regional problem, and
we've got a regional task force to deal with it."

The task force now includes investigators from Tech, Blacksburg,
Christiansburg, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and state police. In
years past, it has included Floyd County and the city of Radford, but those
agencies have since pulled out of the group.

"We open up well over 100 cases each year on folks who are trafficking
drugs. That is our mission, to open up investigations," Spahr said. "We get
calls every day of someone else who is distributing and selling drugs. This
isn't the person who's using it. This is the person who is making a profit
from selling drugs."

Last year, task force investigators seized an estimated $653,960 worth of
cocaine, marijuana, ecstacy, prescription pills and other illegal
substances. Those cases ended in 124 felony and 18 misdemeanor charges
against 102 people.

Most charges brought by the task force end in plea agreements with the
defendants, said investigator G.L. Thomas of the Blacksburg Police
Department. That fact tells him that investigators are doing their jobs
well, he said.

"It tells me we're not leaving the defense team a lot of avenues for a
defense," Thomas said.

But more drugs and more dealers remain on the street. The phones in the task
force's office never stop ringing as people across the area call the hotline
with tips.

Each complaint is funneled to an investigator, who begins putting together a
case. Unlike drug investigators in movies and on television, task force
investigators only make undercover drug buys in high-dollar cases.

"It's not like the bigger cities, where it's an open-air market," Tucker
said. "Here, people generally sell only to people they know. If it's a
stranger who wants to buy, they're a little more hesitant, a little more
skeptical, a little more paranoid."

And, because the valley is a group of small communities, task force
investigators must keep a low profile or risk jeopardizing dozens of active
cases.

Montgomery County's drug problem is typical of other communities. Marijuana
and cocaine are generally the drugs of choice, although closer to the
Virginia Tech and Radford University campuses hallucinogens like mushrooms
or ecstacy are popular, Spahr said.

And there isn't one major dealer, he said.

"There are a lot of entrepreneurs that are out there. They pop up
everywhere," Spahr said. "They sell enough to keep themselves in enough
money to maintain the lifestyle they want."

Still, those dealers operate in many communities, which is why having a
regional task force dedicated to drug cases is an efficient way to deal with
the problem, Blacksburg Police Chief Bill Brown said.

"I think the collaborative effort really benefits local law enforcement
agencies who are not large enough to have individual vice units or drug
units," Brown said. "What you would wind up with before is one complaint and
five or six detectives from different departments all working the same case.
And they would get in each other's way."

Today, the tip goes to one group of investigators who work together to build
the case.

Some tips lead to large-scale cases, like that of Nicholas Carden of
Radford, who was sentenced last year to life plus 251 years in prison for 27
felony sex crimes.

Task force agents began investigating Carden after informants reported
buying and using oxycodone and other drugs. That investigation turned up
evidence of the sexual assault of a young girl in 1988. After Carden was
convicted of the sex crimes, prosecutors dropped the drug case.

Other times, routine work for the task force can lead to large busts.

In November, task force agents were serving drug warrants from North
Carolina at a Christiansburg apartment building when they smelled marijuana
in the air. Investigators found the source in the downstairs apartment,
where they collected nearly 2 pounds of packaged marijuana and about 100
plants.

That case is still pending.

And still other times, investigators are just making their presence known,
such as the sweep through Christiansburg High School.

"We've received numerous complaints from parents reporting their kids seeing
drugs in school and seeing drug deals in school," Tucker said.

So with the blessing of school administrators, police and narcotics dogs
arrived at the school Tuesday morning. Principal George Porterfield
announced over the intercom that the school would be conducting a lock-down
drill. All students, he ordered, were to remain in their classrooms.

Three dogs sniffed outside lockers, inside classrooms and around cars in the
student parking lots.

They didn't smell anything. And task force officers walked away with a sense
of satisfaction.

Another day. Another job done.

"If you can focus on doing one thing, you can do a much better job," said
one investigator, who asked to not be named because of his cases. "That's
what we hope to do every day."

The New River Regional Drug Task Force takes drug tips through its hotline,
381-2291.