TAKING ON THE DRUG TRAFFICKERS

Gerald Dandridge Jr. and Felipe Rosas both made front-page news in
Ocala - Marion County last week. It wasn't good news.

Dandridge was sentenced to 37 1/2 years in prison on March 21 for
trafficking marijuana and cocaine in Marion County, as well as
firearms and counterfeit currency violations. At the time of his
arrest in July 2005, drug agents reported seizing $2.4 million worth
of illegal drugs and estimated the ring was selling up to $2 million
worth of cocaine and marijuana a week. They dubbed Dandridge the
kingpin of the largest marijuana and cocaine ring in the history of
our community.

Rosas, meanwhile, was arrested and charged on March 18 with
trafficking cocaine after police stopped him for speeding. During the
traffic stop, police reported discovering 104 kilos of cocaine stashed
in his Jeep. A later search of Rosas' house turned up another 39
kilos, according to reports, plus $800,000 in cash. The head of the
city-county Multi- Agency Drug Enforcement Team, sheriff's Capt. Terry
Bovaird, called it the biggest single drug bust in Marion County in
his 23 years in local law enforcement.

The two cases are clear indicators that drugs are a real and present
danger in our community - in a very big way. That should not be a
surprise to most, given Ocala/Marion County's surging population, its
proximity to three of Florida's biggest metropolitan areas - Tampa
Bay, Orlando and Jacksonville - and, maybe most important, its vast
network of highways heading in virtually every direction.

Add to that, as Sheriff Ed Dean pointed out, a diverse community where
strangers and newcomers can easily assimilate, and our community is a
perfect place for major drug trafficking organizations to set up a
distribution point.

While dope dealers see the advantages of our location, so do drug
enforcement agencies. That's why a few years back Dean worked to
convince federal officials to declare Marion County a High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), and include it in what has become an
11- county regional task force that brings together federal, state and
local drug units to target major drug traffickers.

And it's having an impact here. Last year, the HIDTA Unified Drug
Enforcement Strike Team based in Marion County worked 1,796 cases,
made 863 felony arrests and filed 2,342 charges. All in all, according
to UDEST statistics, the unit ultimately disrupted or dismantled 10
drug trafficking organizations.

The HIDTA effort is significant not for the crime statistics it posts,
but because it provides concentrated drug enforcement authority and
resources backed by the full weight of the federal government,
including a specially assigned federal prosecutor who specializes in
drug cases. This unit focuses almost solely on major drug traffickers
who are moving large volumes of drugs into or through Ocala/Marion
County.

That, in turn, frees up manpower and money at the Ocala Police
Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Office for those agencies
to focus on the smaller , street-level dealers through the
Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Team, Dean said, calling the paired
effort of HIDTA and MADET a "one-two punch."

"It allows you to leverage your local resources with agents from the
DEA and FDLE, and that is invaluable," the sheriff said.

Drug law enforcers have in recent years acknowledged a growing
presence in Ocala/Marion County of major drug trafficking
organizations, including the Mexican Mafia, which serves as pipeline
to the Colombia drug cartels into the United States. So vigilance on
the part of our local law enforcement agencies, in concert now with
the broader authority and intelligence gathering capabilities of state
and, especially, federal agencies, gives Ocala/Marion County a better
chance of bringing people like Dandridge to justice - and getting the
drugs they peddle in volume off of our streets.

Dean, this year's chairman of the northeast Florida HIDTA Executive
Board, was wise to seek Marion County's inclusion in the HIDTA fold.
While OPD and the Sheriff's Office undoubtedly are active in trying
deter drug activity in our community, there's no denying the
advantages of having the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and,
most important, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration working
alongside them.