Officials fear new meth epidemic after record-setting bust

June 28, 2008 - 11:44PM
By Sean Gaffney, The Monitor

McALLEN - The record-setting seizure of more than 200 pounds of methamphetamine at a McAllen residence in early June stunned local law enforcement and stoked fears that usage could rise in the Rio Grande Valley.

Local drug rehab clinics seldom see meth-addicted patients, and Valley law enforcement agencies rarely encounter the drug. So when news surfaced about the here unheard of seizure of 211 pounds of the potent stimulant - trumping even the related discovery of 18 pounds of black-tar heroin - local officials were shocked.

"We have ... learned through our intelligence channels that this could be something we would be looking at," McAllen police Chief Victor Rodriguez said. "(This) is clearly an affirmation of the fact that methamphetamine may be a new drug of trade here, and the volume that we seized is an indicator that someone close to here has a rather large lab."

Clandestine labs

While meth use grew rapidly across the country in the 1990s, including in parts of Central and North Texas, the Valley was largely untouched by the epidemic.

The small, clandestine laboratories in trailers and secluded homes that spurred rampant production in other areas of the country were found in this region only rarely, if at all. In Austin, by contrast, police sometimes discovered more than three labs a week, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño, a more than 20-year veteran of the Austin Police Department.

The drug's nationwide prevalence waned, however, especially after 2006 when federal officials enacted tougher sentencing laws for trafficking and introduced laws to restrict the purchase of over-the-counter cold medicines used to manufacture the drug.

A powerful synthetic stimulant that can be smoked, snorted, injected or ingested orally, meth is derived from decongestants such as Sudafed which contain the substance pseudoephedrine.

In 2005, Texas introduced its own measures restricting the purchase of products containing the drug's precursors. That prompted a nearly 73 percent decrease in lab seizures in Texas, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

It also drove production south, where Mexican drug cartels began producing enormous quantities to meet the ever-present demand, officials said. The Valley, a major corridor for drug trafficking, naturally became a highway for meth distribution.

"Through various chemical control programs we have been successful in reducing the amount of meth produced in the U.S.," said Will Glasby, a local official with the DEA. "That's leaving the Mexican drug cartel as the primary source for the majority of the meth in the U.S."

Largest cash seizure

In Mexico, drugs used to manufacture meth remain readily available despite government efforts to curb the importation of the precursors from suppliers in several Asian countries, including China, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center.

Along the Pacific coast, Mexican drug cartels fight to control ports and access to the transshipment routes, said Steve Robertson, special agent for the DEA in Washington, D.C.

Compared to the relatively small meth-producing operations in the United States, Mexican cartels produce the drug in so-called super labs that supply more than 80 percent of the meth in this country, he said.

"Mexican drug traffickers, being the entrepreneurs that they are, started producing super labs," Robertson said. "The meth-trade supply source in the U.S. changed dramatically."

In 2006, Mexican agents intercepted a ship from China carrying more than 19 tons of a precursor drug that was allegedly being imported by a Chinese-American businessman. He currently faces charges in the United States that he was part of an international conspiracy to supply huge quantities of precursors to drug cartels.

Zhenli Ye Gon, in whose Mexico City mansion authorities found nearly $207 million in what officials described as the largest cash seizure in world history, has denied the charges and said he was a victim of political corruption. He faces drug trafficking, organized crime and weapons charges in Mexico.

Seldom seen

Along the entire U.S. border with Mexico, officials seized about 4,267 pounds of meth in 2007, according to statistics provided by the DEA. Locally, Border Patrol officials have seized about 221 pounds this year. Police departments have found a negligible amount.

Despite the suspected trafficking, officials said they seldom find the drug locally for a litany of reasons. Unlike other drugs such as cocaine or marijuana, meth is shipped in smaller quantities. Only a small amount of the drug is needed to get high.

Furthermore, officials said, there's still better money in other drugs.

But what's alarming to officials about the recent McAllen bust are the signs suggesting local street-level distribution: masking agents used to disguise the drug during shipment, as well as small plastic bags and paraphernalia used to cut the drug.

Eloy Salinas is the public education coordinator at the Rio Grande Valley Council, a nonprofit agency that provides addiction services. He worries it's just a matter of time before the drug's popularity increases in this region.

This is, after all, a drug in which abuse contributes to increased transmission of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, and can infuse whole communities with new waves of crime, unemployment, child neglect or abuse, and other social ills, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"The last thing we want," Salinas said, "is for us to become inundated with this type of drug."