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DEA AGENT OUTLINES DRUG PROBLEMS IN PINE BLUFF

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:33 PM CDT

An agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday that cocaine and crack are a major problem in Pine Bluff, as is ecstasy.

“It’s all about the money,” Bill Bryant, the assistant special agent in charge of the DEA in Arkansas, said during the Coffee with the Chiefs program at Southside Baptist Church. “It’s quick, easy money.”

Bryant, who has been in law enforcement for 33 years, said ecstasy, also called the “love drug,” is produced primarily in Denmark, Belgium and Germany, and will sell on the street for about $25 per hit (or tablet).

“You look at the pills and they will put logos on them, like Calvin Klein, or the Smurfs, so you know who they’re trying to attract the young kids,” he said. “The newest one is a Harry Potter logo.”

Regarding cocaine, Bryant said, “It only grows in certain parts of the world, mainly in South America, and is smuggled into the U.S., generally in kilos, which are 2.2 pounds.”

He said the DEA not only has offices in all 50 states, they also work in 65 foreign countries because “a lot of drugs come from foreign countries.”

While cocaine and ecstasy are problems locally, Bryant said another drug that is getting a lot of attention by federal, state and local authorities in the state right now is methamphetamine.

“It’s actually a two-fold problem,” he said. “First, you have the small toxic labs, which are capable of making about an ounce of meth.”

Bryant said that since Arkansas adopted a law requiring people who buy pseudoephedrine to show identification, “we’ve seen a drop of 70 percent in the number of those small labs.”

“Unfortunately, the Mexican drug traffickers have taken up the slack, and they’re producing 15 to 20 pounds of meth at a time,” Bryant said. “Methamphetamine is the poor man’s crack, and in powder form, sells for $85 to $100 per gram.”

Bryant described methamphetamine as “the most destructive drug we’ve ever seen.”

“Ten percent of the people who use alcohol get addicted to alcohol but 98 percent of the people who use methamphetamine get addicted to it,” he said.

While Bryant said the drug cartels are involved in smuggling methamphetamine and cocaine into the United States, “their number one moneymaker is marijuana,” grown in Mexico and South America.

“There’s a lot of drugs transported down Interstate 30, Interstate 40 and Interstate 55, and we’re working closely with the Arkansas State Police who are out there trying to bust those people,” Bryant said.

He said marijuana is also grown in Arkansas, with the primarily growing season running from June to the end of September.

“We work with the National Guard and the state police and fly the state in helicopters to try and eradicate that,” Bryant said.

He also praised police, the sheriff’s department and Tri-County Drug Task Force for their efforts to curtail drug activity in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County, explaining that both agencies have assigned an officer to DEA task forces, and those officers work a lot of cases locally.

“They’re deputized so they can work anywhere in the United States, and have access to every asset the DEA has, including money to buy drugs, surveillance vans, wire taps, and it’s all about making the community safer,” Bryant said.

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