NARCOTICS OFFICE CLOSES WILD YEAR

But Budget Could Shut Branch Down

From his office on the third floor of Southaven City Hall, Capt. Leon
Williams has led a five-member team of narcotics agents in prosecuting more
than 100 drug cases and investigating 360 more. It's significant progress
in the office's first year of operation, Williams said.

But inadequate funding at the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics threatens to
stall the work.

The Southaven office might be one of five district offices the state closes
if the narcotics agency's $15.3 million budget request isn't approved, MBN
director Don Strange said last week.

Lawmakers have proposed a $9.3 million budget for the MBN in fiscal year
2003, which starts July 1.

But MBN officials say it's not enough - it leaves the agency only $73,000
after payroll.

"I'm going to hate to see that happen," Williams said. "We don't need to be
pedaling backwards. All the work we do is to benefit the citizens of
Mississippi and make their life better. When the smoke settles, they're the
ones who'll suffer."

The agency might also have to lay off 53 of its 115 agents.

Williams said the layoffs aren't expected to affect any of the agents in
Southaven, who came from the bureau's Oxford and Greenwood offices and
would return to those posts if the office closes.

Until the Southaven office opened last January, narcotics agents from
Oxford were assigned to DeSoto County cases, which made enforcement
difficult, Southaven Police Chief Tom Long said.

"That's why we were trying for years to get an office here," Long said.
"Any time you get extra manpower, it makes a huge difference. It'll have an
immense impact not having them here."

Long said the need for a local MBN office grew as the county became a
gateway for drug-trafficking, due to its proximity to Memphis.

In the past four years, law enforcement officials have noticed a surge,
particularly in crystal methamphetamine use in North Mississippi.

In 1997, the narcotics bureau closed one crystal meth lab in a 12-county
region in northern and central Mississippi. One year later, the bureau
closed 21 meth labs in the same area.

Marijuana arrests for sale and possession have jumped 19 percent in two
years, and cocaine arrests have gone up by 43 percent in the same period,
according to records at the Bureau of Narcotics office in Jackson.

The fate of the Southaven office now rests in Mississippi legislators'
hands. While he waits for word, Williams said agents will continue their
investigations.

"We can't afford to stop," he said. "We just started getting a real grasp
on the problem here. And if we're closed down, we'll still work, but it'll
be back to commuting back and forth from Oxford."