Police partner up to curtail meth

GLENDALE — A statewide crackdown on methamphetamine traffickers will extend to Glendale as the Police Department makes room for a new liaison to a regional task force.

The City Council has approved a $120,000 state grant to pay for a new vice officer position within the Glendale Police Department that will focus on fighting methamphetamine use and production in the city.

The grant is part of a $1.65-million pool that the county got last year from the governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning, Glendale Police Capt. Ray Edey said. The Glendale officer will work with the countywide task force being formed with that money.

The county's allotment was meant to expand a network of task forces targeting methamphetamine-related crime into Southern California, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Arriaga, who works in the department's narcotics unit.

Funding for the new Glendale position will come entirely from the Sheriff's department as it is funded by the state, Edey said.

"It's a tremendous resource," he said. "It allows us to engage regionally."

Police officials say they cannot identify the new officer, citing the need for safety during undercover operations, and would only confirm the scope of the position.

Created as part of the California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement Team, the new officer will work on investigations that may move beyond the city's limits, said Glendale Police Lt. Gary Montecuollo, who heads the city's Special Investigations Bureau.

"Methamphetamine knows no jurisdictional boundaries," he said.

The addition will complement an already proactive narcotics unit within the department, Montecuollo said.

Police would not comment on investigative strategies or give exact figures on the amounts of methamphetamine seized in Glendale, but Montecuollo said that 2004 was a peak period in meth-related crimes and seizures for the city.

A dip in 2005 was followed by a slight increase last year in the amount of the drug seized in the city, he said.

Labs have been relatively uncommon in Glendale due to alert community members who are quick to report anything unusual, Montecuollo said.

Over the last 15 years, though, methamphetamine has proliferated the regional landscape due in large part to the ease of its production, Arriaga said.

"Meth can be manufactured in someone's bathtub or the trunk of a vehicle," he said. "It just makes it easier to get ahold of."

Los Angeles County was the third-largest recipient of California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement Team funds last year at $1.65 million. The Southern California region received about $7.5 million, said Carol Singleton, spokeswoman for the governor's Office of Emergency Services.

With that money, Los Angeles County joins a list of 40 counties throughout California that now have interagency teams fighting meth production and distribution, she said.