METH CRACKDOWN: SPECIAL PROSECUTORS, NEW REGULATIONS ON BUYING METH INGREDIENTS IN BULK PART OF FEDERAL ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS

Federal officials are expanding their role in the war on methampetamine in Missouri.

According to some calculations, Missouri has the most meth labs of any state in the country, surpassing California in that category. The Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force busted about one-third of the total meth labs discovered in the United States in 1995 and part of 1996, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ferrell.

In response to that, the federal government is adding two assistant U.S. attorneys and two officers to Southeast Missouri to work solely on methamphetamine cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Bertolet of the St. Louis office said the positions are being funded by the Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Grant. He said this grant is also funding the placement of assistant U.S. Attorneys in Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, St. Louis, Northeast Missouri and western Missouri whose work will be devoted to meth cases.

Bertolet said the grant has been in the works for nine months. The HIDTA officers will work with officials from the national Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force but will have a broader area of jurisdiction than OCDETF.

"OCDETF attorneys prosecute conspiratorial crimes in cases with significant quantities of drugs," Bertolet said. "HIDTA doesn't have any such restrictions. If we've got a lab, or we've got a meth case, we're going to be able to prosecute it."

Bertolet said one HIDTA officer will be added to the SEMO Drug Task Force and another to the Missouri State Highway Patrol in Southeast Missouri.

The positions are not permanent and the grant has to be renewed every year, Bertolet said. "It's re-assessed every year on a needs basis, but I don't see this problem abating in the foreseeable future," he said.

Ferrell said Mississippi County Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Bright-Pearson has been hired as one of two special assistant U.S. Attorneys whose responsibility will be to prosecute meth crimes. He said methamphetamine cases represent about 60 percent of his office's workload.

"She will have plenty to keep her busy," Ferrell said. He added Bright-Pearson will be working closely with SEMO Drug Task Force officers who busted 74 labs over a 16-month period through 1995 and into 1996. He said that ranks Southeast Missouri second only to Kansas City in the number of labs in the state.

Stoddard, New Madrid, Ripley, Butler and Dunklin counties had the highest number of meth labs busted over that period of time. Mississippi County ranked about seventh on the list.

Ferrell said the other attorney's position had not been filled.

Bright-Pearson, 29, said she has worked a growing number of meth cases since she became Mississippi County prosecutor in 1995. She said she has an idea of what to expect when she begins her new position in a little less than two weeks.

The U.S. Attorney's office is not the only organization that is expanding its crackdown on the area's meth problem. Michael R. Boeger, an investigator with the Missouri Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said the legislature approved the regulation of chemicals used in the manufacturing of meth.

Boeger said the Drug Enforcement Agency initially reported that it had busted 237 meth labs in Missouri in 1996. California had 155. He said that after polling city and county law enforcement agencies, the number rose to 502 in Missouri in 1996.

"At the rate that we're busting labs right now, by the end of December we'll have seized 1,293 labs," Boeger said.

Boeger said the difference between California and Missouri labs is the size. In California, producers are making pounds of meth for distribution. In Missouri, the labs are smaller and used for more personal production.

Boeger said manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and distributors who work with one or more of the 32 chemicals used in meth manufacturing in Missouri will soon be required to register with the Department of Health.

Distributors are going to have to present identification when buying those chemicals in bulk, Boeger said. He added that the Drug Enforcement Agency is working on legislation that will regulate over-the-counter transactions of meth chemicals starting Oct. 1.

Boeger said his department will be contacting all of the people that need to be registered when the time comes for that. "They'll have to obtain identification on every single customer. They'll have to know exactly where they're shipping it to and then they'll have to report all their sales to me monthly," he said.