Attorney General Arizona

Meth Inc.: Industrial-scale Mexican labs now pushing top-grade poison our way

Company methamphetamine has come to Tucson.

This upscale, very pure, very powerful speed is made by organizations with the knowledge to design a superior product and distribution networks to get into the hands of customers worldwide. It is purer and more powerful than ever.

It's not meth a few years back, the kind a dealer or small-scale drug could cook for under a hundred dollars and the time it took to mix, heat and decant some harmful chemicals .

Legislation limiting the availability of precursor chemicals ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in 2005 effectively killed the domestic production of methamphetamine in Arizona - and given the Mexican market to drug trafficking organizations.

These organizations, including the band of Sinaloa, Sonora, have refined methamphetamine treatment techniques and circumvented regulations on chemicals needed to make the drug, Angela Walker, a forensic chemist at the center-south of the Drug Enforcement Administration laboratory in Texas, told a group of researchers at drug and Community Health in January.

"They have full-scale, huge operations," Walker said. "They have very good chemists who know what they're doing, and they make a very good product."

Meth has reached a 10-year high in terms of purity and a 10-year low in terms of price per gram, the Department of Justice's 2010 National Drug Threat Assessment said.

Tucson is a major distribution hub of corporate meth. The Border Patrol's Tucson Sector seized at least 450 pounds of meth this year through May. In 2010, local police agencies and the Pima County Sheriff's Department seized more than 20 pounds of the drug and handled 257 methamphetamine investigations across Pima County.

Tucson police estimate law enforcement may be catching only 10 percent of what is moved through Pima County. If that's true, about 4,050 pounds of meth may have slipped past the patrol's Tucson Sector and more than 190 pounds may have made it onto the streets of Tucson or been moved through Pima County.

The damage caused by meth extends beyond addicts and their families. There is a strong correlation - some law enforcement officials say a direct correlation - between meth use and property crime. Addicts become essentially unemployable, say officials, and often turn to theft, fraud and burglary to support their habits. In 2010, property crime cost Tucson more than $117 million.

Breaking up these new meth rings is especially challenging because they leave few footprints. Distributing marijuana requires a stash house - and law enforcement has been effective in training neighborhood associations to spot and report suspected drug houses. The old-school method of selling meth included low-level criminals cooking or importing small amounts of the drug and breaking it down, and then trading it with lower-level criminals for stolen cash, property or identification cards.

Director: Letter To Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne Concerning ...

As you are aware, ATF ran a program called “Fast and Furious” out of their Phoenix office whereby the let assault rifles “walk” into the hands of the  Mexican  drug cartels and various border bandits.

Two of those ATF “walked” guns, which were sold by a Phoenix area gun shop with the knowledge of ATF, were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

While various investigations are on-going at the federal level, there appear to be important state law issues involved in this situation.

I specifically call your attention to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 1201 “Endangerment”

Evidence is mounting that field agents within the Phoenix office of ATF warned their superiors that the “walking” of guns could lead to the deaths of, among others, federal agents.

The warnings of these dedicated and honorable law enforcement officers were ignored by their superiors. The end result was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died as a result of these “walked” guns.

Arguably senior officials in ATF are chargeable for endangerment under state law.

I would urge you and your staff to look into the record that has been developed so far by the US House Committee on Oversight and  Government  Reform and the sworn testimony by various ATF employees with an eye on what, if any, state criminal laws were violated in the course of the “Fast and Furious” project.

I am suggesting ARS 13-1201 as just one of what may be many examples of violation of state criminal laws by ATF officials.

There is a fundamental issue at stake here.

Sometimes the federal government operates as though it is not subject to any law, even at the federal level. At times it becomes obvious that in the pursuit of their mission, they disregard state law, placing their mission ahead of the public safety and well-being of the people within a state.

Just because they might be federal employees or even federal law enforcement officials, they do not have any kind of immunity for violations of the state criminal code.

I urge you to look closely at the conduct of ATF within Arizona, and investigate whether or not that conduct violated state criminal laws, And if you find the conduct of the ATF senior management did indeed violate state law, please hold those ATF officials accountable to the people of Arizona.

Biennial report of the Attorney General of Arizona

Constitutional government in Arizona

Acts, resolutions and memorials adopted by the ... Legislative Assembly of the territory of Arizona

Arizona DUI Defense, The Law and Practice

The Pacific reporter