Vendor Prosecution - Problem Statement

Stanislaus County is at the center of the methamphetamine manufacturing problem in the nation. Recently, our now-retired District Attorney, Jim Brazelton, and our Sheriff, Les Weidman, took the initiative to have the Central Valley of California including Stanislaus County designated as a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” (HIDTA) under federal regulations. Stanislaus County is now host to a HIDTA team consisting of local, state, and federal officers. Although we have a strong, proactive and long-term drug interdiction and prosecution unit in the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency (SDEA), professionals involved are overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.

From January 1, 1998, to July 1, 2000, SDEA identified and investigated over 158 methamphetamine manufacturing laboratory cases, confiscated 208 firearms from drug dealer/manufacturers, and seized six hundred and thirty two (632) pounds of methamphetamine. Between January 1, 1998 and June 2000 there were approximately 50 manufacturing cases that involved one or more children present and exposed to poisonous precursor products, dangerous by-product toxins, and methamphetamine.

Each pound of methamphetamine produces 5 to 6 pounds of toxic waste. The environmental impact of these methamphetamine labs is devastating. Since 1998 over 237 Lab dumps have been found in the county with almost nine thousand pounds of waste products and precursor solids and over three thousand gallons of waste product/precursors recovered, this represents a huge amount of deadly waste introduced into our county's air, water and food production. Many of these dump-sites are located directly adjacent to drinking water wells.

We believe that in Stanislaus County, we are only able to interdict about 10 percent of the labs actually in operation at any one time producing methamphetamine. The scale of the problem threatens to overwhelm our prosecutorial and law enforcement resources. Methamphetamine manufacturing is only part of the problem. We also have a substantial number of cases involving sales of heroin, powder cocaine, rock cocaine, PCP, Marijuana, and MDMA.

Given that most of the methamphetamine manufacturing and trafficking operations are not interdicted in our county, as is true throughout the State, estimates must be based upon reasonable extrapolation made by field officers. We estimate that our methamphetamine production “industry” has grown by 20-25% a year for the last four years. With recipes for methamphetamine readily available on the internet and in retail book-stores, and with the chemicals used to make methamphetamine available at local grocery/retail stores, no change in that trend of increased production is foreseen.

The rate of drug production/sales is increasing at a much faster pace than the increase in prosecution/enforcement assets. Therefore, the net rate of interdiction shows a downward change. This trend is roughly verified by the fact that, generally speaking, our intervention efforts do not affect the street price structure for the drugs, despite the reduction of supply by the amount seized in our cases.

In this environment, the methamphetamine production problem is nearly out of control. The MNVP program allows the worst offenders to be prosecuted using a vertical approach. This vertical approach, with a specifically trained prosecutor and with a dedicated investigator allows concentration on the biggest producers in the county. This exclusive, “team” prosecution approach, with a reduced caseload to concentrate on the worst cases is the best way to gain impact.

For the fiscal year 1998-1999, our MNVP prosecutor disposed of approximately 35 cases by jury trial and plea. Sentences of decades were imposed on several defendants. For the 1999-2000 term numbers are expected to increase slightly and the same is expected for the 2000-2001 term.