State May Close Sole County Drug Office : Law enforcement: All 21 agents would be moved to L.A. in proposed budget-cutting move. Local authorities say they need more help, not less.

In what local authorities say would be a blow to drug enforcement in Orange County, the state is considering shutting its only drug and investigation bureaus here, moving 21 agents to Los Angeles.

The state agents, who work in the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and the Bureau of Investigation, seized $5 million in drug assets and about three tons of cocaine last year. They helped to dismantle more than a dozen methamphetamine laboratories, said J.D. Miles, the special agent in charge in Orange County.

Under the budget-cutting proposal, nine clerical workers would also be laid off, Miles said.

Miles said that if the agents leave the Orange office, there is no plan to have them handle cases in Orange County, where they regularly work with local police and federal agencies.

“I would hate to think the Department of Justice is putting Orange County low on their priority list,” Miles said. “With L.A. as big as it is, the chances of those agents coming back to Orange County (and handling cases) is slim to none.”

The closure, which depends on final budget deliberations in Sacramento, would be part of a proposed $12.7-million budget cut from the Department of Justice, said Cindy Katz, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Finance. The office in Orange has an annual budget of about $1.7 million, said Tom Gorman, deputy chief of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Sacramento.

Department of Justice officials in Sacramento stressed that there has been no final decision about the future of the Orange office.

“The Orange office is one possibility out of hundreds,” said Kati Corsaut, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Justice.

“We’re looking at all possibilities,” Gorman said. “But Orange is the only one we’ve studied the impact of it closing,” he said.

Department of Justice officials declined to say why the Orange office was being targeted.

“It’s way too premature at this point in time to give reasons of why we’re looking at Orange because they may not be good reasons,” he said. “We’re exploring.”

Gorman added that the Orange office’s $94,000 annual lease, which expires in September, was a factor, but he did not elaborate.

Gorman conceded that the current speculation about the future of the office was not helping morale there.

Local law enforcement officials said the removal of the agents would be a blow to narcotics enforcement at a time when they are clamoring for more manpower, not less.

“BNE participates in (the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program) and if their office closes it would be a blow to us,” said Capt. Tim Simon, who heads the regional narcotics task force.

“If you pull those people, then there is going to be an impact. And only time will tell what the overall effect will be,” he said.

Ugene Stevens, president of the California Narcotics Officers Assn., said: “Narcotics enforcement is going to take it in the shorts, I’ll tell you. If they’re going to give up Orange County, it’s a shame.”

“You cannot lose that type of manpower and not feel it,” said Simeon R. Greene, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration bureau in Orange County.

Greene said the loss of the state narcotics agents would be particularly damaging in the fight against methamphetamine production. Many of the state agents are trained in dismantling those laboratories, Greene and Miles said.

Some local law enforcement officials and agents in the Orange office criticized the possible move as shortsighted. Cities expect to wind up with less money after the lingering budget crisis ends, which may mean a reduction in the number of narcotics officers they employ, they said.

“To pull out would be like going back in time,” said one agent who did not want to be identified.

“They’re moving around money,” Miles said of the state politicians working on the budget, “and not paying attention to helping the drug problem in Orange County.”