CAMPBELLS CREEK INVESTIGATION ATTRACTS DRUG COMPLAINTS

As investigators combed the Campbells Creek area for clues to the fatal
shootings of three Kanawha County residents last week, they say residents
blame drugs, particularly methamphetamine, for the killings.

The meth trade has become an ever-increasing aggravation for police across
the country, and has been a growing problem in West Virginia for the past
several years.

The drug is so simple to make that it can be produced in a moving car. It
can invade entire neighborhoods because it can be made on back porches or
kitchen tables or in laundry rooms.

Users become paranoid and nervous after they inject, inhale or snort the
drug, which gives them a six-to 12-hour high.

In Kanawha County, the meth trade has kept federal and local drug agents on
their toes following leads and complaints through rural hollows and into
prominent Charleston neighborhoods.

"Meth is not new. We've had it before and we've had it for a while," said
Lt. Steve Neddo of the Metro Drug Unit, which covers Kanawha and Putnam
counties.

He said Metro Drug officials have had complaints from Campbells Creek over
the past few years, but have also heard them in most other parts of the county.

"Pills and meth and the hard stuff has swept through here just over the
last couple of years," David Roy of Point Lick Hollow, near Campbells
Creek, told The Associated Press.

"The last three to four years it seems like people have figured out ways to
cook it with readily available products, chemicals and pills," Neddo said.

Police have not linked the deaths last week of Jeanie Patton, Okey Meadows
Jr. and Gary Carrier Jr. to drugs, but say they are looking at drugs as a
possible motive for the killings. Patton and Meadows lived in the Campbells
Creek area.

Kanawha County Chief Deputy Phil Morris said investigators have returned to
Campbells Creek to look into drugs in the area.

"We're not saying there isn't a random [shooter]," Morris said. "We're not
saying [residents] can stop looking over their shoulder. We're simply
saying there is a drug problem in Campbells Creek, and we're looking at it
very seriously."

If the fatal shootings are meth-related, they won't be the first in the
area. In 1998, at least three people were killed in two separate incidents
in Kanawha County. Police said their deaths were related to the meth trade.

In July 1998, Jeffrey "Fat Boy" Stone was shot and killed in the driveway
of his Campbells Creek home. Stone was a meth dealer, according to police
and prosecutors.

In December 1998, Leonard Watts, 32, and Christina Renee Alberts, 20, were
shot to death. Two men broke into their Jefferson apartment to steal meth,
and Alberts recognized one of them. The pair then killed Watts and Alberts,
who was nine months pregnant.

At that time, police acknowledged that meth was a rising problem in the
area. It's only gotten worse since then, they say.

"What's happening is one or two guys learned how to make this meth and now
you've got a bunch of little meth labs in cars, trailers and on back
porches," Neddo said. "They're just proliferating."

Meth from the South, especially from states that border Mexico, used to
make up the majority of West Virginia's meth supply. But now, local meth
makers are taking care of their own supplies, Neddo said.

The drug's manufacture poses problems besides legal ones. The ingredients
are volatile and can explode while the drug is cooking.

Last month, a man was critically burned when his apartment on Charleston's
West Side was blown up. Police said they found "evidence of a meth lab" in
the apartment.

Still, the drug can be made in a short time, using a simple recipe with
household items including over-the-counter pills, propane cookers and tubing.

"It's just the ease of the manufacture," Neddo said. "Green's Feed and
Seed, your local Wal-Mart and you're there."

One brazen producer was pulled over in Dunbar with a coffee pot of meth
cooking on a flame between his feet in the car.

A person can sell a good batch of the drug for about $100 to $150 per gram,
Neddo said.

Jeff Wallenstrom, Drug Enforcement Administration resident agent in charge
for Charleston, said the national trade is making its way to West Virginia
and, in about half of the cases, is coming from in-state producers.

"It started in rural areas because historically that's who it attracts,"
Wallenstrom said. "The price has come down to be basically accessible for
anyone."

To contact staff writer Charles Shumaker, use e-mail or call 348-1240.