Twenty-five grams of free-base cocaine, seen here, along with pills and drug manufacturing tools were seized by Amador County law enforcement during a warrant execution on June 4. Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger Dispatch

On June 4, an undercover agent from the Amador County Combined Narcotics Enforcement Team pulled off a successful sting operation, leading to the arrest of a woman suspected of supplying free-base cocaine, better known as crack or rock.

April Robinson, a 33-year-old Sacramento resident, first delivered 5 grams of crack in early May to the undercover ACCNET agent in Sutter Creek. Believing she was safe dealing with a legitimate drug buyer, she then delivered 20 grams of the same product on June 4, when ACCNET team members took her into custody. They were assisted by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit.

Armed with a warrant from Amador County, the ACCNET agents searched Robinson's home in Sacramento. Her three children were all present as agents seized digital scales, drug packaging materials, pills and marijuana. Authorities from Sacramento Sheriff's Drug Endangered Childrens Unit and Child Protective Services were forced to place all three children in protective custody.

For over a year-and-a-half, ACCNET's agents have been raiding large-scale marijuana and methamphetamine operations in Amador County. Its commander, Jackie Long, has also been in the public sphere educating parents about the dangers of letting teens fall into addiction.

Amador County has long suffered from wide-spread methamphetamine use - an engine for numerous types of felonies committed in the area. In November 2008, Long was the main speaker at a local town hall meeting, warning of the rise of OxyContin and methadone use among young people. Just weeks before a combination of those two narcotics had taken the life a 17-year-old boy from Ione. In the wake of Thursday's arrest of Robinson, Long said the bust was important because base cocaine is another drug that wrought devastation on individuals and communities.

"The operation has eliminated a source of base cocaine, or crack, that was being sold in Amador County," Long observed. "It's a form of cocaine that can only be smoked. In its smoked form, it becomes a very addictive drug for most of its abusers. The extreme euphoric effects last up to 10 minutes, followed by a deep depression. The cycle of depression keeps many of the abusers in a constant search for more of the drug."

Long also pointed out that the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement for the state's Department of Justice has seen an increase of seizures of cocaine hydrochloride this past year. Amador County has also seen an alarming rise in that direction. As of this month, ACCNET agents have experienced a 350 percent increase of seizures of cocaine as compared to all of 2008.

The task force is continuing to investigate potential drug-trafficking funnels that are bringing base cocaine into the county. Despite crack being thought of as primarily an inner-city drug epidemic, Long believes letting it infiltrate Amador County could be disastrous.