UNDERCOVER DRUG DEALS REQUIRE MONEY -- LOTS OF IT

If Money Makes The World Go Round, The World Of Law Enforcement Officers Is
Spinning Slower Than They'd Like.

Officers often catch methamphetamine dealers through undercover buys. When
law enforcement officers run out of money -- usually toward the end of
their fiscal year -- they can't make those buys anymore.

"This year, we ran out with six months left in our year," Norfolk Police
Division Capt. Steve Hecker said of his anti-drug task force's
investigative budget. "Once those funds are gone, you don't have the
ability to make a phone call, make a buy."

For those who want to see law enforcement be as effective as possible in
fighting drugs, the lack of funds is a big problem. Here's why:

1. The need for money

Officers usually do not get their money back after they make an undercover
deal. They could, of course, arrest a drug dealer right before the money
changes hands. But then the dealer could be charged only with possession of
a controlled substance and not dealing."You can't arrest them for
possession with intent to deliver unless they actually deliver it to you,"
said Capt. Chuck Sherer of the Columbus Police Department. He also is the
coordinator of the anti-drug task force that operates in Northeast Nebraska.

Officers could return a few hours after the deal, arrest the dealer and get
their money back. While this saves money, it doesn't catch many drug
dealers. That's because the officers want their contact to introduce them
to other dealers so the officers ultimately can arrest as many people as
possible.

"We don't want to just make a buy and make an arrest because (then)
everyone knows who our informant is," Hecker said. "While it may be cheaper
for us to make a one-time buy and make the arrest, it also limits us to go
up the drug chain."

By the time the officers do arrest a dealer and everyone else they've met,
the money spent on the initial buy usually is long gone. Officers get the
money back only if the serial numbers on cash confiscated from the dealer
match the numbers on the bills the officers used to buy drugs with.

Officers' buy money comes from their department's investigative funds,
which are used for such things as paying informants and, of course, buying
drugs.

The Nebraska State Patrol receives $115,000 from the state treasurer's
office each year for drug, criminal and liquor investigations. This amount
has remained the same since 1974.

Meth prices have dropped from about $20,000 a pound in 1990 to $6,000 to
$8,000 a pound now. The falling prices do stretch funds further, but they
also attract more users, said Sgt. Allan Walton of the state patrol.

The patrol also receives about a dozen federal grants every year for drug
investigations. These grants range from $3,000 to $600,000 each, said
Jeannine Rediger, state patrol grants administrator.

Even so, the state patrol "almost every year" runs out of its investigative
money as the fiscal year ends, Walton said.

The Norfolk Police Division has no investigative funds, but the division is
part of SNARE, a task force of 14 area law enforcement agencies.

SNARE members can tap into the task force's investigative funds, which were
$48,000 for the 2001-02 fiscal year. If officers spent this all at once, it
would buy almost seven pounds of methamphetamine.

But in the world of drug dealing, seven pounds isn't much.

2. The consequences

The lack of cash makes it harder to catch some drug dealers, officers say.

Task force members usually buy meth in one-eighth ounce purchases -- the
same as an average user. However, some dealers don't sell in amounts that
small. They sell only in pounds. "There are certain groups out there that
aren't going to sell less than $5,000 (worth of a drug)," Hecker said.
"It's very difficult to get those people because they move pounds. We don't
have the resources that would allow us to make those buys."

3. Solutions

Despite being cash-poor, law enforcement agencies are resourceful.

Drug dealers sometimes must pay restitution to law enforcement agencies for
buy money or other investigative costs. SNARE members have been "somewhat
successful" in getting restitution payments, Sherer said.

Law enforcement agencies also join together to make available funds go further.

SNARE, or the Specialized Narcotics Abuse Reduction Effort, started in
1990. The task force is made up of 14 groups, including the Nebraska State
Patrol, the Madison County Sheriff's Office, the Schuyler Police Department
and the Colfax County Sheriff's Office. Most of the members give money to
the task force, and all of them share intelligence.

SNARE is more efficient than a single law enforcement agency working by
itself, Sherer said.

For example, the Columbus Police Department has one drug investigator. But
because the department is a SNARE member, it now has seven drug
investigators that can be called on for help, Sherer said.

"Criminal behavior (is) fluid," Sherer said. "People involved in this don't
say, 'Well, I'm going to work only in Columbus, or only in Norfolk, or only
in Nance County.' It gives us flexibility to cross jurisdiction lines."

Because SNARE is a task force and not a local governmental entity, it also
is more likely to receive federal grant funds. SNARE received $70,480 last
year through the Nebraska Crime Commission from the federal Edward Byrne
Memorial grant. The crime commission gives priority to task forces when it
distributes the Byrne grant.

"(SNARE) shows collaboration on a larger scale," Sherer said. "It shows
agencies working together for a common cause."

4. Throwing money to the wind

Some officers doubt, though, whether lots of money can ultimately stop
illegal drug use.

"We've been throwing money at the drug situation for as long as I can
remember. There's more drugs out there today than there ever has been,"
said Sherer, who has worked in law enforcement since 1978. "I don't know if
more money would make a dent in the problem."

Hecker agreed.

"If we had an unlimited amount of money, we're not going to solve this drug
problem," he said. "Once the methamphetamine influx started in the '90s, I
don't know that we've ever experienced anything like this."

So, money for drug buys isn't the ultimate solution, but it is a piece of
the puzzle.

"We'll do the best we can with what they give us," Sherer said. "I don't
want to sound ungrateful. If we had more money for buys, we could spend
more money and buy more dope. There's plenty of it out there to be bought."