Cape Girardeau police detective Rick Price wears a pager wherever he goes, awaiting calls from informants.

Federal Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Shirley Armstead is required to carry a gun at all times.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Larry Ferrell and Mike Price used a drug-task-force grant to hire extra help to handle an increasing number of drugs and weapons cases.

Although they come from different backgrounds, all four are considered part of the solution to the ever-growing threat the drug market poses on Southeast Missouri residents.

In the past year, short-staffed, overworked law enforcement agencies have adapted a solution to fit the game by pooling their resources and forming special task forces to face the drug problem head on.

"We have a zero-tolerance approach," said Price, a member of the Cape Girardeau County Narcotics Enforcement Unit. "No fish is too small for us."

The unit was formed last year in a joint agreement between the Cape Girardeau Police Department and the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department. It is designed to handle drug tips and work narcotics cases in the county on a full-time basis.

Prior to the unit's existence, the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, a multijurisdictional compilation of officers throughout the region, conducted long-term investigations in the Cape Girardeau area from time to time, leaving the outlying areas in the county largely untouched.

"This unit lets us deal with the drug market on a daily basis," said Price. "We're just trying to keep it sane out there.

"If we were no longer on the streets every day, I can't imagine what it would be like," he said. "I don't know if we're making a significant dent in the drug market, but I do know we're keeping the dealers moving and making the users afraid to buy from just anybody."

Armstead, one of 3,800 DEA agents nationwide, said the lack of manpower is law enforcement's biggest handicap in its war on drugs.

"Because of our limited resources, we can only afford the manpower and to devote the time to target high-level dealers and drug networks," said Armstead. "The street dealers have to be left to local law enforcement agencies to handle.

"Our investigations can last anywhere between six months and 10 years," she said. "They can involve dozens of agencies. But they also result in the dismantling of major drug networks."

Federal and state legislators have taken a tough stance against the drug trade and the criminals caught in its web. Many state legislatures, including Missouri, have established mandatory sentencing requirements for people with multiple drug convictions.

But the federal court system wields the biggest hammer over the heads of drug offenders. Mandatory sentencing and guidelines that often compel suspects to cooperate with law enforcement agencies prompt several local and state officials to seek federal assistance with major cases.

And with programs like "Project Triggerlock," federal agencies like the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI are churning out cases at record rates.

To handle the increased caseload while skirting a federal hiring freeze, assistant U.S. attorneys Price and Ferrell added Cape Girardeau attorney Curtis Poore to their staff earlier this year to handle primarily drug and weapons cases.

Poore's salary is paid through a grant received by the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, which is keeping the local federal prosecutor's office busy.

"Probably 75 percent of the major federal drug investigations in this area will involve a certain degree of participation by the drug task force," said Ferrell. "Our goal -- working as a united force against drug trade -- is to see the level of drug activity decrease in this jurisdiction. I believe we can reach that goal."