PRESSURE MOVING DEALERS TO COUNTRY

Rural Counties Combat Crack And Marijuana

WOODFORD - A canopy of evergreens and oaks leads the way to Sunshine School
Road. The South River lazily follows the road for a short distance, before
the landscape gives way to an open field dotted with hay bales.

As serene a setting as it is, state police say it also is part of the
latest front in a campaign against rural drug dealing. Earlier this year,
state police and local authorities charged about 40 suspects as part of a
two-year sting in Caroline County.

Police say such busts are indicative of a trend that has taken hold in
central Virginia and some other parts of the state in the past decade: Drug
dealers, confronted with crackdowns in cities, have taken to the country to
ply their illicit trade.

"There's a lot of heat in the city. Naturally, they're going to scatter,"
said Maj. Donald Lowe of the Louisa County Sheriff's Office.

Steve Irwin, a special agent in the state police's Richmond Division, said
state police have targeted rural areas within the past five to seven years.
Authorities say crack cocaine and marijuana are the primary drugs of the
trade, although they are also seeing powder cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.

Irwin said the rural drug trade has thrived partly because the resources of
sheriff's departments are often stretched thin, not allowing local
authorities to conduct large-scale sweeps.

"They're in dire need of assistance," he said. "The counties I'm working
now are absolutely polluted with crack cocaine. A lot of these areas have
been untouched for 15 years."

Lt. Richard Childers, who heads the state police's drug-enforcement
division, said teams of state police and local authorities strive to find
the right balance between enforcement in metropolitan and rural areas.

Last year, about 45 percent of the 864 drug cases worked by task forces in
the Richmond Division were in rural areas. Similarly, about 47 percent of
the 836 cases in 2000 were outside metro areas, according to state police.
A similar breakdown for the early and mid-1990s is unavailable, state
police said.

The division includes 25 localities, encompassing central Virginia and
stretching from the Northern Neck to just west of Richmond and south to
Nottoway, Amelia and Powhatan counties.

Authorities labeled the Caroline sting "Operation Clean Air" because the
investigation targeted street- and mid-level dealers operating open-air
drug markets. But these are not the open-air markets of the cities, where
unknown buyers - and undercover officers posing as them - can easily score
a baggie of marijuana or crack cocaine.

Rural dealers eye new faces with more suspicion, authorities say. Many of
the rural dealers and buyers are related to each other, even if distantly,
authorities say.

"They ask a lot more questions," said Tony Barksdale, a state police agent
who coordinates a task force of state police and local authorities in
Dinwiddie and Nottoway counties. "If they see an unfamiliar faces, they
tend to perk up."

For that reason, authorities say they rely less on undercover agents to
make buys, instead opting to send in informants, usually someone they've
arrested before in the area or a neighboring locality.

The lay of the land presents another problem. In cities, police can observe
drug deals from a car parked along a heavily traveled street. "You can
blend in so much better," Barksdale said.

In rural areas, authorities are confronted with woods, wide-open fields and
roads where minutes can go by between the passing of cars. "Law enforcement
cannot get close in," Irwin said.

Authorities won't say exactly how they contend with such obstacles, but say
they have to adjust their means of audio and video surveillance.

Geography also plays a role in the drug supply. State police say some of
the most troubled spots are along the Interstate 95, 64 and 85 corridors.

"They're drug routes," Barksdale said. A Sunshine School Road house that
agents searched in connection with the Caroline sting is only four miles
from an I-95 exit.

Authorities say some characteristics of rural drug dealing mirror the trade
in the cities. Irwin said authorities are seeing evidence of a drug
hierarchy. "There's a big guy, then a couple lieutenants, then worker
bees," he said.

He added that some dealers and buyers are starting to identify themselves
by wearing colored headbands that could indicate an affiliation or affinity
for gangs. "That's scary," he said.

In Louisa, Lowe said authorities have managed to shut down open-air drug
markets, but that the drug problem still exists. "It's just hidden a little
bit better," he said.

Lowe said authorities sometimes are frustrated by jail or prison sentences
handed to suspects. Some suspects are back on the streets almost as soon as
they are released. "You just try to manage it as best you can," he said.

Linda Thomas of Caroline echoes Lowe. "The big bust [in Caroline] did a
lot, but it always comes back," said Thomas, a community activist who also
is president of the Caroline branch of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. "It's a 10-headed monster. You cut off a
head and four grow back."

Irwin said he hopes the Caroline bust and one planned for this spring in an
undisclosed locality will curb the drug trade, or at least take some
dealers off the streets for a while.

"We're just now starting to send a message," he said.