Mexican traffickers fill the meth void

OLYMPIA – The small meth lab – a toxic, dangerous and squalid symbol of the methamphetamine problem – is becoming a rarity in Washington and around the country, but the drug itself remains.

The number of meth labs found in Washington dropped by more than 50 percent last year, a decrease credited in part to tough new laws that include banning over-the-counter sales of everyday cold and allergy medications that are used to make methamphetamine.

But into the void stepped Mexican-based drug organizations that ship a purer, more addictive form of the drug – crystal meth, also known as “ice.” Officials now say that 75 percent of the state’s meth comes from outside its borders, compared with an estimated 50 percent in 2001.

“As we have controlled our domestic problem, our importation problem has increased exponentially,” said Washington State Patrol Detective Sgt. Gary Gasseling, who works with the state’s Meth Initiative, a coalition of treatment, prevention and enforcement agencies. “These people are very, very well organized, very well connected and they know what they’re doing. This is big business for them.”

In Oklahoma, the first state to put allergy medications behind pharmacy counters in 2004, meth lab seizures fell 90 percent in a year. But that state’s trafficking rose significantly.

Idaho has seen its number of labs fall as well in the past few years, though its own law doesn’t take effect until July, and Maj. Dave Kane of the Idaho State Police said there has been a slight upswing in the number of labs they’re finding this year.

“We are spending so much time tracking down drug trafficking organizations, we haven’t been able to be as proactive on labs,” Kane said.

On a recent bust in south Thurston County, officials said that 33-year-old Miguel Reyes Abarca was a low-level drug trafficker who had made at least two previous sales of the highly addictive drug. No drugs were found that day – the $26,000 worth of meth that that investigators hoped to seize was apparently flushed down a toilet.

Reyes Abarca – a Mexican national – faces deportation, as does the other suspect, Filiberto Alvarado-Penaloza. Officials haven’t yet been able to tie Reyes Abarca or Alvarado-Penaloza to traffickers higher up the food chain.

While state officials don’t have a definitive number of how many trafficking cases they deal with a year, Capt. Mark Couey said WSP’s drug unit seized 14 pounds of trafficked meth last year, up significantly from the 3 pounds seized in 2004. Statewide, the number of pounds of trafficked meth increased from 101 pounds seized in 2001 to nearly 400 pounds last year, he said.

At purity levels of 90 to 95 percent, crystal meth is much purer and more addictive than home-cooked powder meth.

The number of people seeking treatment has been on a steady increase for the past several years. The state treated 7,669 adults and 820 teens for meth addiction last year, compared with 6,379 adults and 717 teens the year before, according to the state’s Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse.

“The demand is still there,” Couey said. “That’s the unfortunate part.”

State officials are claiming some success. Even before the state passed new laws last year that put pseudoephedrine products behind the counter, officials had been successfully targeting labs in Washington state, which has regularly ranked near the top of the country in the number of meth labs raided annually.

The number of labs and dump sites have decreased from a high of 1,890 in 2000 to 806 last year.

Nearly 40 states, including Washington state, now have laws that restrict over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine products.

New provisions of the Patriot Act put federal restrictions on over-the-counter sales that will take effect later this year.

All of these restrictions make it more likely that traffickers will pick up the pace. State and federal officials say that of the 196 trafficking organizations in the state, 86 were involved in meth.

“The addicts are still addicted,” McKenna said. “And the traffickers are simply stepping in to meet the demand. We need to meet with the addiction issue as well as the crime issue.”