CANE FIELDS TO METH CRYSTALS

Thieves Stealing Fertilizer From Area Farmers To Make Drugs

To the list of the woes of south Louisiana farmers, add marauding drug
manufacturers. As if droughts, bugs and bad prices aren't enough, some
farmers have found that their fertilizer attracts a new kind of pest armed
with propane bottles and bolt cutters.

Anhydrous ammonia, a common farm fertilizer, has increasingly been the
target of thieves who want to use it to manufacture the illegal drug
methamphetamine, commonly called "crystal meth."

Nighttime raids on the tanks that hold the heavy gas have been on the rise
in southern Louisiana as the practice of hitting the tanks of unwitting
farmers for drug fuel has spread from the American Midwest.

St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said he has made 22 arrests of
ammonia thieves in the sugar cane fields of his parish since February.

It's gotten so bad that some midnight raiders have had to wait in line for
others to finish tapping the tank before they take their turn to swipe the
chemical.

Martin said one arrested suspect said that thieves were already at work on
the tank he had targeted that night.

"They told him to come back in an hour," Martin said.

Ammonia is a key ingredient in the manufacture of crystal meth. Use of the
stimulant is on the rise. It can be made almost anywhere, including inside
a car or van.

Farmers use anhydrous ammonia to fertilize their fields with nitrogen.

Farmers store it in tanks of several thousand gallons, then use special
equipment to inject it into the soil to bring up the nitrogen levels, said
Jim Monroe, assistant to the president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau.

It is dangerous to handle for people who have not been trained in its use,
and it's classified as a hazardous material.

"Primarily, the folks who use anhydrous ammonia are sugar cane farmers and
some of the pasture folks," Monroe said.

Corn farmers also use the fertilizer, he said.

Other fertilizers are available, but sugar cane farmers lean toward ammonia
because it costs less, Monroe said.

Todd Crochet, an Assumption Parish sugar cane farmer, said the ammonia is
about half the cost of the alternative.

Crochet had his tank hit by ammonia robbers earlier this year. They took
bolt cutters to the locks he had placed on the valves of his tank.

"It's a big problem," he said. "It's a problem we didn't have before."

One facet of the problem is simply a fear of having a tentacle of the drug
trade reach out to the farm.

"It's a major concern for the farmers who have the anhydrous ammonia tanks
... because people who steal it to make drugs will do just about anything,"
Monroe said.

One St. James Parish farmer, who saw his farm raided more than a dozen
times this year, was willing to talk about the problem but did not want his
name published for fear of reprisals by thieves who were arrested but have
already bonded out.

He said that, even with hidden cameras and sheriff's detectives in his
fields, the thieves did not stop coming until he drained his tanks after
finishing the preparation of his fields.

"I don't like these kind of people hanging around my place," the farmer
said. "We're not used to have people like that hanging around here."

The thieves often bring their own equipment, so even cautious farmers who
lock up the tank valves and put away the equipment used to properly hook up
to the tanks still find themselves victims.

Propane bottles, such as those used for gas grills, are a popular container
for the ammonia the rural raiders steal, Martin said.

That's one of the other dangers of the drug ingredient traffickers -- they
don't handle the chemical safely, he said.

One group of four thieves who had gotten away with a propane tankful had
their tank explode after they were well away from the farm, Martin said.
"The tank erupted in the vehicle with four boys in it," he said. "You're
dealing with a dangerous product."

Crochet said mishandling tank equipment could also create a dangerous
situation for farmers who don't realize their valves have been tampered with.

Monroe said that another concern for farmers using anhydrous ammonia is
that, as other farmers switch to alternative fertilizers, those who still
can't afford it will get more visits from criminals because the supply of
"free" ammonia is shrinking.

"How have they been finding these tanks in the middle of nowhere?" asked
St. James Parish sugar cane farmer Ozane Gravois.

He too has seen more than a dozen raids on his farm tanks, with the ranks
of field thieves growing over the past two years.

"It's like Canal Street in our fields," Gravois said.

He said he appreciates the work that the sheriff's office and State Police
have put in to try to help curb the problem.

"The cops have been watching pretty close," Gravois said. "They stop me in
the field some times."