Redding DEA to triple in size to fight methamphetamine production

Redding DEA to triple in size

Red Bluff Daily News

Redding, CA Mar 11, 2005 -- The Redding Drug Enforcement Agency will
triple in size this spring as law enforcement continues to try to
curb methamphetamine production in the north state.

The office will soon house six agents five line agents and a
supervisor. In 2002, the DEA established a two-agent post of duty
office in Redding. Since then, the DEA has worked with state and
federal law enforcement officers to build a large number of
methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution cases, as well as
major marijuana cases.

According to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was on hand to make the
expansion announcement Thursday, California produces about 80 percent
of the methamphetamine consumed nationwide.

"The decision by the DEA to increase the number of agents in Redding
is an important step forward in the fight against the growing scourge
of methamphetamine," she said.

United States Attorney McGregor Scott said that he believes the
enhance DEA presence in the north state will lead to more federal
prosecutions of meth manufacturers and traffickers.

The expanded DEA office will continue to work closely with the state
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the Cal-Met Program (the state-funded
anti-meth initiate), and county narcotics task forces in the
nine-county region which includes Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Plumas,
Lassen, Trinity, Shasta, Modoc and Siskiyou.

The far northern counties in California have been a major
methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution area for years,
according to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy.

"Methamphetamine traffickers thought they could take refuge in the
rural areas of Redding, but today we counter their threat with more
special agents, more resources, and more commitment than ever before
to ending the plague of meth in our communities," Tandy said.

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