Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jul 2001
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer (OH)
Copyright: 2001 The Cincinnati Enquirer
Contact:  http://enquirer.com/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/86
Author: Janice Morse

FERTILIZER THEFTS SIGNAL A GROWING METH LAB PROBLEM

Anhydrous Ammonia Is 'Juice' For Drug Trade

On the farm, it's a high-nitrogen fertilizer that keeps crops a healthy 
green, and it usually costs less than $2 a gallon.

On the streets, anhydrous ammonia is known as the "juice" that's fueling 
the growing production and abuse of methamphetamine - and it can sell for 
$60 to $200 a gallon.

Because of the potential for profit, thieves are striking farms and 
fertilizer supply outlets throughout the Tristate. They're also endangering 
themselves and others who might have contact with the hazardous substance.

Rising thefts of anhydrous ammonia are an unexpected symptom of the 
region's growing problem with "meth," a highly addictive stimulant 
concocted from cold medicines, household chemicals and, often, anhydrous 
ammonia. Illegal meth labs are being busted in Southwest Ohio in record 
numbers - more than in any other region of the state.

"People should be worried" about the thefts of anhydrous ammonia, says Bill 
Chokran, plant manager of Royster-Clark Nitrogen, which keeps many tons of 
the pressurized liquid fertilizer in a high-security, remote location west 
of downtown.

"Anyone who tries to get into this stuff is crazy," he says. "If you get it 
on you, it's going to burn you. If you inhale it, it's going to put you on 
the ground. It could kill you."

In Southwest Ohio, where anhydrous ammonia is useful to supplement 
clay-based soil, the number of meth lab busts has quadrupled in less than a 
year. Since October, at least 80 meth labs have been dismantled in Ohio and 
Northern Kentucky - and 48 of them were in Greater Cincinnati, according to 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Columbus office.

During spring, the prime fertilizer application season, "you can drive down 
every country road and see (anhydrous ammonia) tanks just sitting there," 
says Jay Cooke, criminal intelligence analyst for the Ohio Bureau of 
Criminal Identification and Investigation. "There's nobody watching them."

"It's Scary Stuff'

While there are ways to make meth without the ammonia, the recipe most 
common in Ohio requires it. And unlike cold medicines, drain cleaners, 
batteries and other substances used in meth, "anhydrous ammonia isn't 
available at the corner store," says John Burke, commander of the Warren 
County Drug Task Force.

"So you have the farmers who use anhydrous ammonia, and there are the folks 
that sell it to them, and they are the two that get hit," he says. "At 
nighttime, these wing nuts will break into the anhydrous tanks and put it 
into propane tanks, then drive off."

Anhydrous ammonia - literally, ammonia without water - is so potent that a 
teaspoonful must be diluted with about five gallons of water to make it 
suitable for household use, Mr. Chokran says.

Stored as a liquid under pressure at minus-28 degrees, anhydrous ammonia is 
an essential component of the so-called "Nazi method" of making meth, which 
produces an intense high that can last for days when smoked, snorted, 
injected or eaten.

The drug does have legitimate medical uses. In low doses, it may be 
prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder, obesity and certain sleep 
disorders.

But when illegally produced, untrained people - who are frequently high on 
dope - mix the ammonia with other substances in a flammable, explosive and 
toxic brew.

"It's scary stuff," Mr. Burke says. "Meth is a lot different than other 
drugs. Meth creates a whole lot of other issues that can affect anybody. It 
could be your neighbor cooking it next door, with all these explosive 
chemicals. And then there are the toxic wastes they just toss out afterward."

In Highland County, east of Cincinnati, two meth labs have exploded since 
late May, injuring six people.

Besides being dangerous, the labs require costly environmental cleanup - 
about $150,000 each - to remove toxic waste that can sterilize soil and 
pollute water supplies.

Law targets illegal labs In less than 10 years, clandestine meth production 
has spread from the western United States to almost every state east.

Reports of illegal labs, dump sites and arrests are increasing in Ohio, 
Indiana and Kentucky. Meth labs can show up virtually anywhere - homes, 
apartments, motel rooms, car trunks and even duffel bags.

"This tide is flowing eastward, and we're hoping to throw a wall up around 
Ohio," says Rep. Jeff Manning, R-North Ridgeville, who sponsored an 
anti-meth law that takes effect in Ohio on Aug. 7.

The law makes it a felony to assemble or possess chemicals for the 
manufacture of drugs. It was developed because police were finding people 
with anhydrous ammonia and other ingredients to make meth, but former laws 
didn't allow an arrest unless officers caught the suspects cooking the drug.

Until recently, "no one really knew why anhydrous ammonia was being 
stolen," Rep. Manning says.

The meth problem is forcing law enforcement agencies to take a novel 
approach to crime-fighting, says Brent Walls, spokesman for the Ohio Office 
of Criminal Justice Services.

"Generally, when you have a drug problem, you don't think to go and talk to 
the Farm Bureau or the local convenience store, but that's what we're 
having to do with meth," he says.

Mr. Walls' office is sending a "methamphetamine awareness guide" to 900 
Ohio police agencies for distribution to the public, retailers and farmers.

And officers in Warren, Clermont and Highland counties say they have tried 
to warn farmers that their fertilizer supplies might be in jeopardy.

Thefts unreported Several area farmers and fertilizer suppliers who 
reported thefts declined to be interviewed, citing security reasons.

And police and fertilizer suppliers say they think many more ammonia thefts 
are going unreported than reported.

Typically, thieves will collect a few gallons - an amount that might not be 
missed from a tank containing 800 gallons or so. If a farmer does notice 
some of the fertilizer is gone, the monetary loss is small and he might not 
report it, authorities say.

Some "juice" thieves are so brazen, they'll steal entire tanks containing 
thousands of pounds of anhydrous ammonia.

"I know of four different tanks that were stolen in Southwest Ohio this 
spring," says Stan Hicks, chief operating officer for Harvest Land Co-Op, a 
supplier of anhydrous ammonia to hundreds of farms throughout Ohio, Indiana 
and Kentucky. "If there's a tank out on the farm, it's a target."

In May, a tank containing 4,400 pounds of the ammonia was stolen from a 
Harvest Land site in Butler County. The tank, minus a small amount of the 
fertilizer, was later found abandoned.

Thefts pose dangers The thefts create frightening safety hazards, says 
Detective Sgt. Steve Alexander of the Highland County Sheriff's Office. The 
department has investigated 14 meth labs and dump sites and at least 10 
anhydrous ammonia thefts in less than seven months in the largely rural area.

"All four of our detectives are working on nothing but meth," Detective 
Sgt. Alexander says.

Tampered valves on anhydrous ammonia tanks can expose unsuspecting farmers 
to the chemical, he notes. And the thieves transporting the ammonia 
endanger anyone nearby.

"I'm surprised that we haven't had people killed with these propane tanks 
filled with anhydrous - they're not made for that," Detective Sgt. 
Alexander says.

On May 28, a Highland sheriff's deputy was called to investigate suspects 
fleeing from the field of a farmer who reported six anhydrous ammonia 
thefts this year.

The deputy lost sight of the suspects, then backtracked to a spot where 
they had tossed something from their car. When the deputy picked up the 
container, "anhydrous fumes came up and got him - and he was out of work 
for a week," Detective Sgt. Alexander says.

Because of the potential for such incidents, fertilizer suppliers are 
conducting training sessions for police, fire and ambulance crews on how to 
protect themselves in case of exposure to anhydrous ammonia, Mr. Hicks says.

They also try to inform farmers about storage and handling precautions.

However, specially developed locks and other security measures sometimes 
fail because the thieves are so determined, says Jim Sweigert, risk 
coordinator for Harvest Land.

"They're breaking the locks, they're damaging the equipment to get to the 
ammonia," he says. "In one of our facilities, we spent several thousand 
dollars on a chain-link fence and barbed wire - and just a few days after 
our fence was up, they cut it."

Meth an "epidemic' People who make or use meth become fixated on getting it 
because "there are few, if any, products out on the market that can produce 
that intense kind of high," says Bill Williams, coordinator of the Clermont 
County Drug Task Force, which has dismantled 22 meth labs and dump sites so 
far this year. "It's going to be an epidemic. The addictive qualities of 
methamphetamine are just phenomenal - even more so than crack cocaine."

Besides providing a "high" that can last for days, meth also can be 
lucrative. For $600 in ingredients, a meth cook can turn a $2,000 profit, 
Mr. Williams says.

The fertilizer industry is so concerned, it's working on nontoxic additives 
that would render the ammonia useless for making meth. CropLife, a farming 
publication, quoted industry sources in April saying that three anti-meth 
additives could be available within about eight months.

"We're very hopeful about this," Mr. Hicks says. "If we can eliminate (meth 
cooks') use of the anhydrous, they'll have to look for something else."

(SIDEBAR)

ABOUT METH

Known as "ice," "crystal," "chalk," "glass" and "crank," methamphetamine 
can be smoked, snorted, injected or eaten.

Users may become agitated, hallucinate, turn violent and paranoid.

It is cooked in clandestine labs that create health, environmental and 
safety hazards. The labs have been found in car trunks, duffel bags, 
storage lockers, hotel rooms, barns and homes.

Signs of meth lab operation include unusual, strong odors and excessive 
amounts of trash.

For each pound of meth, about five pounds of toxic waste are produced, and 
the chemicals can cause severe lung damage and skin and eye burns.

Common ingredients and equipment: Pills containing ephedrine or 
pseudoephedrine, anhydrous ammonia, acetone, vehicle starting fluid, lye, 
drain cleaner, jugs, bottles, funnels, glass jars, coffee filters, propane 
tanks, hot plates, strainers.

If you suspect an illegal lab is operating nearby, contact local police or 
fire crews; the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, (614) 466-7782; 
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, (614) 644-3020; the U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration, (513) 684-3671; or the Ohio Department of 
Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, (614) 466-3445.

TRISTATE BUSTS

Here are highlights of meth lab busts in the Tristate over the past 15 months:

April 10, 2000: Undercover drug agents broke up what was believed to be 
Cincinnati's first methamphetamine lab, located in a shed behind a vacant 
house in Fairmount after neighbors complained of fumes.

June 28, 2000: A Harlan Township couple was accused of running Warren 
County's first known methamphetamine lab. Phillip and Lori McMullen later 
pleaded guilty to a single felony charge each of aggravated possession of 
drugs. Authorities who raided the property said they found 57 loaded guns, 
a pound of marijuana, $4,000 in cash and 33 grams of meth.

Oct. 6, 2000: Authorities shut down Farmer's Tavern, a hole-in-the-wall bar 
they say was an outlet in a Tex-Mex drug pipeline that pumped $1 million 
worth of dope each week into Butler County. Six suspects were arrested and 
accused of being part of a group that was the Tristate's biggest meth 
supplier caught to date, the DEA's Cincinnati office said.

Oct. 16, 2000: After a lengthy investigation, Cleves police made their 
first-ever methamphetamine bust. They found no working meth lab, but did 
find paraphernalia used in its manufacture and packaged meth ready for sale.

Dec. 15, 2000: Police in Indiana raided suspected methamphetamine labs in 
Columbus, Crawfordsville and Jennings County. The raids resulted in six 
arrests.

Feb. 20, 2001: A methamphetamine lab run out of a van and home was 
discovered by Boone County Sheriff's Department deputies during a drug raid 
on Dorcas Avenue in Florence. Two people were charged.

April 23, 2001: Four Mississippi residents were arrested after police found 
a methamphetamine lab in an Aberdeen, Ohio, hotel room; a 2-year-old found 
there tested positive for methamphetamine.

May 29, 2001: Police in Highland County responded to a meth explosion in a 
rented home. At least two people were hurt.

May 31, 2001: Police discovered a methamphetamine lab in a Florence motel.
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