COUNTY KEEPS UP INTENSE DRUG WAR

Detectives took 14 pounds of methamphetamine off the streets in
Central Oregon from July 2001 through June 2002, said a Deschutes
County Sheriff's captain, but the amount seized was far less than what
is being produced and/or distributed in the area.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy designated Deschutes County
a high-intensity drug trafficking area in 1999. The designation opens
the area up to additional money to fight drugs.

So far, Deschutes County has received more than $900,000 to combat
drugs in Central Oregon.

But even with $300,000 in federal dollars being funneled into the
Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) team annually, police struggle
to keep up.

"Our biggest problem is meth," said Deschutes County Sheriff's Capt.
Randy Wight. He said Central Oregon lends itself to small meth labs
because they are easier to conceal in areas with wide-open public
lands as well as large-acre properties.

From July 2001 through June 2002, the drug team made up of detectives
from law enforcement agencies in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson
counties, arrested 280 individuals on charges of manufacture and or
distribution of meth.

Those 200 cases also involved people being charged with 90 counts of
child neglect and or endangering the welfare of a minor. That's
because children were present when the CODE team busted the meth labs.

The drug team also wrote 40 search warrants and seized the following
during the same time period:

* 400 pounds of marijuana

* 17 grams of ecstasy -- an amphetamine with a hallucinogenic
effect.

* 11 grams psilocybin mushrooms

* 16 grams ephedrine - the main ingredient in methamphetamine

* 10 grams hashish

* 10 grams opium

"It (federal money) is a major enhancement on our ability to do
investigations," Wight said. "We would be hard pressed to to the kind
of work we've been doing without it."

Of the $362,000 sent to Deschutes County annually, about $212,000 buys
surveillance and office equipment, pays detectives overtime and pays
rent on CODE's offices.

Salaries for the 15 detectives at CODE are paid through their own law
enforcement agencies.

The remaining $150,000 pays for the prosecution of drug
crimes.

Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Steve Gunnels has been
appointed a special assistant to the United States Attorney to
prosecute drug cases in federal court. Federal convictions tend to
mean more time behind bars.

Gunnels said the $150,000 pays his salary and benefits as well as
those of his assistant.

So far, Gunnels has convicted two people in federal court for delivery
of methamphetamine:

* Luis Alberto Caro, 23, of Salem delivered a total of 1=80 pounds of
meth in three drug buys with CODE in Deschutes County in July and
August of 2001, Gunnels said.

He was sentenced to five years and 10 months in federal prison in
August for the distribution of meth.

* Israel Duvan Velazquez was arrested for delivering one pound of
methamphetamine in a drug buy with CODE in August 2001. He was also
sentenced to five years and 10 months in federal prison in August for
distribution.

Both men were illegally in the country and will be deported to Mexico
at the end of their prison terms.

A third man, Shane Jeffery Clapp, 28, has pleaded guilty to delivering
more than a pound of cocaine in a CODE investigation in February.

Gunnels said his sentencing has been set for January, and he expects
Clapp to get several years in federal prison for distributing the cocaine.

In addition, Gunnels said he has three other cases that he is seeking
to prosecute at the federal level.

He also prosecutes drug cases at the state level and currently has
about 60 pending.

"There is a real problem with meth, and it is getting worse even than
when I started two years ago," Gunnels said.

He also said the federal funding for his position as well as CODE does
have an impact. "Undoubtedly there is connection between meth use and
violent crime.

"People steal to pay for meth. And when they are high on it, they hurt
other people as well as themselves."