Yakima Appears To Be Winning Drug War

YAKIMA - Three years ago drug trafficking pushed this central Washington farming city to the top of the FBI's list of the most crime-ridden in the nation.

But more law officers, tougher jail sentences and community efforts seem to be winning the war on drugs.

The number of drug arrests and murders has dropped. There are fewer signs of drug dealers on the streets.

"We're making a dent," said Robert Dreisbach, in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Yakima office.

Drug arrests in Yakima dropped 29 percent last year, from 708 to 512, said Police Chief Pleas Green.

"Visible street trafficking is down 60 percent to 70 percent," Green said.

Murders in the city of 55,000 dropped from 11 in 1988 to one last year.

In 1988, the major crime rate of 177 offenses per 1,000 residents topped the per capita rates of Miami, Washington, D.C., and Detroit to rank highest in the nation, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

That rate fell to 130 crimes per 1,000 in 1990, Green said. That's still the highest in the state. The national ranking was unavailable.

Yakima's problem was not one of local consumption. Rather it was that major drug trafficking organizations, many with ties to Mexico, had set up warehouse and distribution operations to supply the Pacific Northwest.

Local police were overwhelmed and civic leaders began publicly demanding additional money from the state and federal governments.

As a result, major news organizations across the country jumped on the story of a small city in a remote state emerging as a drug battlefield.

"We were one of the first communities to step up and say we have a problem and address it," Mayor Pat Berndt said. "We were smaller than big cities and a little more newsworthy."

Yakima is the hub of the nation's fifth most productive farming county. It is a national leader in the production of apples, asparagus, hops, mint, cherries and many other crops.

Tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers pass through each year. Those workers provided a cover for professional drug traffickers who found it easy to hide their drugs and drivers in the migrant stream, Dreisbach said.

The negative publicity made some residents of this conservative city wonder if cocaine would replace the apple as Yakima's symbol.

William Bennett, the former U.S. drug czar, visited in 1989. Politicians lobbied in vain to have Yakima designated a "high-intensity drug trafficking area."

Residents held anti-drug marches attended by thousands.

Economic development leaders said convention business and recruitment of outside companies to the county of 190,000 residents has been hurt.

Dreisbach says now that many of the news accounts overstated Yakima's drug problems.

"I don't think we were ever as unique as we were made out to be," Dreisbach said.

An often-repeated contention that Yakima was the smallest city to have a full-time DEA office was incorrect, Dreisbach said. It was not even the smallest in the state.

And to compare Yakima's drug problems with those of New York or Miami was ludicrous, he said.

"There is no way that Yakima could or should be compared with the high-intensity areas," he said.

But millions of dollars poured in, and the war on drugs became truly militaristic.

National Guard troops continue to patrol some neighborhoods at night in jeeps. Sometimes an Army helicopter will shine lights on suspected drug houses.

The city hired 12 more police officers, and federal agencies added prosecutors, DEA agents and other staff. The state gave money for a new jail.

U.S. Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., helped secure additional federal resources.

"We need to be certain we are keeping agents in there and shutting off the pipeline," Adams said.

The drug war was fought on numerous fronts.

The Legislature passed stiffer sentences for dealers operating near schools.

A drug hotline was set up so residents could phone in license numbers of suspicious vehicles. Residents pushed for more recreational opportunities for young people.

The association also organized block watches and parties to paint over graffiti.

The drug problem from the start was portrayed as caused by Hispanics and centered on the city's east side.

That angered Hispanic leaders, who argued that many of the dealers and consumers were white.

Dreisbach said law officers did not target Hispanics, who make up nearly one-quarter of the county's residents.

"We target drug traffickers and in Yakima they are mostly Hispanic," he said.

Still, the Yakima County Coalition for the War on Drugs, formed out of community marches in 1987, recently hired a Hispanic to coordinate efforts in that community.

"Hispanics felt they were getting a lot of negative publicity," said director Ester Huey.

Drug publicity also angered law-abiding residents of the east side.

"The war on drugs certainly did destroy our property values and the attractiveness of the neighborhood," said Maud Scott, a community activist who has remodeled several older homes in attempts to revive the area.

Middle-class urban pioneers are no longer willing to risk living in the area, she said.