Kline may hire attorney for drug cases

Federally earmarked money totaling $70,000 is expected to be applied toward funding a prosecutor from the Kansas Attorney General's Office to litigate drug-related cases.

Attorney General Phill Kline, who is battling Johnson County Prosecutor Paul Morrison for re-election next month, announced late last week in Pittsburg that his office received a Congressional Earmark Award to aid in the fight against methamphetamine trafficking and drug prosecution in southeast Kansas.

Kline said at a conference on Thursday at the Crawford County Courthouse in Girard that someone has been needed to fill the prosecutor position, which he said has been vacant since prosecutor Al Kyle retired a year ago. Kline said he was approached about the need for assistance at the start of the year. He commended U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kansas, with securing the needed funding.

The prosecutor will work directly with the Southeast Kansas Drug Enforcement Task Force, a group of 13 police chiefs and sheriffs from six southeast Kansas counties: Allen, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Neosho, along with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Kline's office. The task force was formed in 2000.

The task force is funded largely by county commissions of the six counties. Both the Fort Scott Police Department and Bourbon County Sheriff's Office have used its services in drug bust operations.

The task force's mission is to target middle- or higher-level drug violators in the six counties, task force director and KBI special agent Bruce Adams said at a Fort Scott City Commission meeting last December.

The task force has been successful, Adams said.

From July 1, 2000, to Oct. 31, 2005, the task force, assisting law enforcement agencies, initiated more than 946 investigations, arrested 769 persons, 452 convictions in criminal cases, 99 persons prosecuted in federal court, seized 490 firearms from known drug dealers, served 460 search warrants in the coverage area, seized 58 pounds of methamphetamine (a street value of $2.5 million), and seized nearly 6 pounds of cocaine (value of $250,000), Adams said.

"Meth has such a devastating impact on those who use the illegal drug, as well as their families and the communities they live in," Kline said in a statement.

Authorities are currently focusing more on seizing infiltration of the drug from Mexico and the west coast rather than busting meth labs in Southeast Kansas, which have declined in recent years, authorities said.

Neosho County Sheriff Jim Keath said having an assistant attorney general whose focus will be on drug cases will give the "prosecution power needed to back up our enforcement and investigation efforts," he said in a statement.

Fort Scott Police were unavailable for comment about this article. Several calls to Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's office for additional information have gone unanswered.