MONEY'S NOT IN METH

North Texas Drug Task Force Losing Funds Fighting This Battle

Battling methamphetamine has chewed up law-enforcement dollars as
viciously as the drug gnaws through the bodies of its addicts. While
an average crack warrant earns cops an easy $1,000 to $5,000 a pop
from seized property and cash, the money's not in meth, said Wichita
Falls narcotics agents.

"Whatever money they make, they go and blow it to make more meth,"
said one officer said, who spoke on condition of anonymity. North
Texas Drug Task Force Commander R.W. Smith said the weight of meth is
what jacked up the price of running his organization this year. The
counties and cities that belong to the task force will have to pay a
portion of the 25 percent match to keep the organization running. In
the past, they've gotten a free ride because of profits from seizures.
"Last year was the first year anybody had to pay anything in eight
years," Smith said. "I hate that, but all I can do under those
circumstances is make sure my guys give them the best bang for their
buck they can." Just because officers are fighting a growing drug
threat doesn't mean they've stopped working against other types of
drug dealers; Smith said the opposite is true.

"The guys have never seized as much dope. They've never worked harder
than they're working right now," he said.

While other drug dealers are out for profit, meth dealers have a whole
different set of motivations that leech narcotic officers' resources
without giving them rewards, he said.

"You sell cocaine, even crack, and they're in the business to make
money. They've got stuff," Smith said. "(Meth dealers) don't worry
about their electric bill. They don't worry if their kids have food.
They don't worry if they're living in their own filth."

Besides not footing any bills, meth cooks are hard to ferret out
because they are homegrown and sometimes rural, Smith said. Many
counties may have only one deputy for miles of land, making detection
of labs extra-difficult. Nasty side-effects of meth production include
plenty of forgery and petty theft to buy the materials to cook the
drug, a narc officer said. He said thieves don't hesitate to rip off
the ingredients to manufacture the drug, either. During one raid, a
task force officer found a map in a closet marking all the spots in
surrounding counties where anhydrous ammonia, a chemical needed to
make the drug, was located. The map even gave quantities of the
chemical found at each spot. Meth cooks often steal the chemical or
buy it illegally, crimes that become costly for farmers.

As for the legal ingredients for making meth, some officers said local
businesses are raking in profits from dirty, if legal, sales. "For
every company or business that tries to stop it, there's another
business that's cashing in on it. They say, 'Well, it's not illegal to
sell it,'" a city narcotics officer said.

Dirty money doesn't stop there, Smith said. "I know good and well that
a lot of these defense lawyers are getting paid with drug money," he
said.

Besides not paying bills, busting meth lab cooks is dangerous. Many
meth users become excessively paranoid and aggressive after they're
hooked on the drug, a city narc officer said.

That officer said he'd raided homes with surveillance cameras and with
binoculars positioned at each window. One set of dealers actually dug
an underground cavern to use for cooking meth and hiding out. Houses
where meth dealers live are often filled with dangerous fumes and
toxic materials as well, he said.

"We had one warrant when you walked in and you couldn't even breathe.
The kids were sleeping down the hall in the living room," he said. A
recent methamphetamine cook busted by narcotics officers in
Burkburnett came very close to snuffing out the lives of the four
manufacturers. Instead of anhydrous ammonia - because of stiff
penalties for possessing it illegally - they decided to use red
phosphorous, an extremely volatile gas that replaces the anhydrous and
lithium.

Burkburnett narcotics investigator Sgt. Raymond Holland said the
manufacturers had started to mix the chemical in the third stage of
the cook, but didn't get the right chemical reaction.

"If they had, because the house wasn't ventilated, it would have
killed everybody in the house," Holland said.

The raid team, in turn, can be exposed to the deadly chemical, which
is why a raid is conducted with extreme precautions. Test kits are
used to determine what chemicals or gases are present. In the case of
what narcotics officers call "Red P" "they back out, secure the scene
and get the fire department as quick as possible and use a breathing
apparatus," Holland said. Other dangers to officers are the risk of
chemical burns and explosions. "We instruct officers if at all
possible don't do anything to cause a spark," Holland said. "The worst
thing we can do is get in a shootout. You don't know what stage the
process is in. This stuff is extremely flammable. All it would take is
the flash from a camera to cause an explosion." Holland said officers
have to take every precaution they can to protect themselves and
others during a raid, because most cookers don't take any precautions.
"They don't care who they hurt," he said. Jefferson County Sheriff's
deputies face the same risks, possibly more, because out in the rural
areas they are dealing with desperate manufacturers looking to score
the prized - and felony tagged - anhydrous ammonia. "People are armed
because stealing anhydrous is a felony now," Sheriff Stanley Barnes
said. "You're dealing with people cranked up already and they're
carrying firearms. My biggest fear is that my deputies will walk up
and get in a gunfight. The danger to officers is increasing." Besides
the risks, narcotics officers tolerate working long and varied hours.
"Out there in the task force, eight hours and you're maybe just
getting started," Smith said. "The work dictates when you come and
when you go." Despite that, he said most of the officers thrive on the
independence and challenge of the job.

"It's a burden that just gets in your blood, and you shoulder it and
go on," he said.