About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
STATE The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Friday, February 21,2020 7A ANGIE WANG I Associated Press U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon announced the launch of Operation Crystal Shield at a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday, Feb. 20. Federal authorities say they are targeting methamphetamine “transportation hubs” around the country in an effort to block the distribution of the highly addictive drug. New enforcement agency focuses on city meth hubs BY KATE BRUMBACK Associated Press ATLANTA — Federal authorities are targeting methamphetamine “transporta tion hubs” around the country in an effort to block the distribution of the highly addictive drug, officials announced Thursday. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon visited Atlanta to announce the launch of Operation Crystal Shield. Atlanta is one of eight cities the agency has identified as a hub where methamphetamine from Mexico arrives in bulk for distribution around the country. The other cities are Dallas, El Paso, Hous ton, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Phoenix and St. Louis. By focusing on those hubs, Dhillon said, they hope to attack the entire supply chain and intercept the drug before it is traf ficked to neighborhoods and communities throughout the country. While much of the focus in recent years has been on synthetic opioids like fentanyl, methamphetamine continues to be a leading cause of death and addiction, Dhillon said. A 2005 federal law that regulated the retail sale of over-the-counter drugs like pseudoephedrine — which can be used to make methamphetamine — largely elimi nated the production of the drug in the U.S., Dhillon said. Now, however, almost all the methamphetamine consumed in the U.S. comes from Mexico, where it’s produced on an industrial scale and smuggled across the border, he said. DEA seizures of methamphetamine in the U.S. increased by 127%, from 49,507 pounds to 112,146 pounds, between fiscal years 2017 and 2019, and DEA arrests related to the drug rose nearly 20%, the agency said. Authorities have seen a dramatic spike in the amount of methamphetamine smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months. From October through the end of Janu ary, authorities seized about 50,000 pounds of methamphetamine at U.S.-Mexico border crossings. That’s more than was seized for the entire 2017 fiscal year. December was an especially busy month for methamphet amine trafficking, with more than 16,000 pounds of the drug seized at border cross ings, which is nearly as much as was confis cated in all of 2014. Dhillon and other law enforcement offi cers spoke at a news conference with piles of methamphetamine from two recent seizures in the Atlanta area laid out in front of them. Firefighters responding to an apartment fire in Cobb County found a meth lab. Inside, authorities found boxes of candles that contained methamphetamine and could be cooked down and processed into crystal meth, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert Murphy, who runs the agency’s Atlanta field office. The candles had stickers indicating they’d been inspected by authori ties at the border, but the drugs went unde tected, he said. Also on display were transparent evi dence bags containing about 1,300 pounds of processed crystal meth that were seized in a Clayton County home along with about 100 gallons of a product that could be cooked into about 5 to 7 pounds of crystal meth per gallon, Murphy said. The drugs on display represented about 2.3 million individual doses, he said. “This is a staggering amount of metham phetamine, and it illustrates the problem that we have,” he said. Murphy said the production of the drug in Mexico results in a scary combination: a drug with higher purity and a lower cost. The surge in resources associated with Operation Crystal Shield is expected to last at least through the end of the year, and authorities said they will be watching to see how the cartels pivot in response. Three of the cities in the initiative are in Texas, partly because drugs shipped over its border can be difficult to intercept in the state’s vast size. UGA, Georgia Tech fight new early admit proposal BY JEFF AMY Associated Press ATLANTA — The University of Georgia and Georgia Tech are fighting a proposal to make them favor in-state residents in early admissions, saying a state senator’s proposal would degrade their ability to recruit top out- of-state students and maintain their national reputations. Sen. Brandon Beach, an Alpharetta Republican, is pushing Senate Bill 282, which would require Georgia’s four top universi ties to admit at least 90% Georgians during early admission periods. Beach said during a hearing Thursday that UGA and Georgia Tech are denying admission to too many high achieving students during their early admission periods, and too many are leav ing the state. “I just think that is unacceptable, that we’re not taking our own bright (students) over someone from out of state,” Beach told the Senate Higher Education Commit tee in a Thursday hearing. “We’re spending $100,000, K through 12, educating our kids here, and then we’re letting them to go out of state if they can’t get in one of these two universities that they really want to go to.” It’s an election-year bill aimed at the col lege anxieties of parents in Beach’s afflu ent suburban district. Beach says the bill is about UGA and Georgia Tech, although it would also apply to Augusta University and Georgia State University. The state classifies those four schools as research universities. The committee didn’t vote on the bill, and it’s unclear if it will resurface, considering the heavy opposition from UGA President Jere Morehead and Georgia Tech President Angel Cabrera. “I’m not sure I see something broke that needs fixing,” said state Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat whose district includes much of the Georgia Tech campus. The presidents said top-flight out-of-state students are key ingredients for excellence at their universities, and that the bill would also cost them tuition money the state col lects from those students. Without non-Geor gia residents, they warn the universities might be less attractive to the in-state stu dents clamoring for admission. “We will transform Georgia Tech into something else,” Cabrera warned. “So that school that now all kids are dreaming to attend may not be there if we do this.” Today, 88% of undergraduates at UGA are from Georgia, while 61% at Georgia Tech are from in-state. But during early admission periods, the share of out-of-state students admitted is higher. The two presi dents said the market for those students is intensely competitive, meaning they need to be locked in early. But Beach argued that the universities should prefer Georgia residents in early admissions, as they do in overall admissions. “Our kids from Georgia have the right to make early plans too,” Beach said. NASHVILLE MUSIC CITY ADVENTURE April 20, 21, 22, 2020 3 Day / 2 Night All Inclusive Payment deadline March 18, 2020. 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ALL INCLUSIVE PRICE ONLY: $1,115*pp Double Occupancy $1,441*pp Single Occupancy Democrat Tarver formally launches his Senate campaign in Georgia AUGUSTA — A former federal prosecutor appointed by President Barack Obama for mally launched his campaign Thursday in the crowded race to take on Georgia’s newest U.S. senator. Democrat Ed Tarver, 60, of Augusta is the third Democrat to officially announce he’s challenging newly appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who also has a GOP opponent in U.S. Rep. Doug Collins. All candidates will share the ballot in a free-for-all special elec tion Nov. 3. Tarver kicked off his Senate bid with an online video that emphasized his military ser vice as an Army captain and featured photos of the candidate with Obama, who chose Tarver to become southern Georgia’s first African- American U.S. attorney. He pledged to work toward bipartisan solutions to improve access to health care and battle climate change. “In the Army, we were never asked if we were conservatives or liberals,” Tarver said in a news release. “It was about serving one nation.” Tarver said more than a month ago that he planned to join the race for the Senate seat that Loeffler was appointed to fill after Republican Johnny Isakson retired at the end of Decem ber. Tarver didn’t back down after the race quickly became crowded. Other Democrats running are the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, and Matt Lieberman, an educator whose father is former senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman. Associated Press For Tour Details: gainesvilletimes.com/memphistour Limited Space, Reserve Today! 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