FERTILIZER IS FODDER FOR DRUG WAR

Modern-Day Bootleggers Prowl Fields For Material Used in Making the Drug
Methamphetamine

VENICE CENTER -- Across the back window of Paul Wheeler's pickup hangs a
12-gauge shotgun. A rifle sits across the bench seat. Both are handy for
turkey season and woodchucks in the way. But they also serve as protection.
Wheeler and other Cayuga County farmers face an unlikely war on drugs in
their fields of corn, wheat and soybeans, reported The Post-Standard of
Syracuse on Sunday.

They began to worry about their families' safety after drug dealers figured
out the farmers use a fertilizer -- anhydrous ammonia -- that happens to be
perfect for making methamphetamine, a cheap, highly addictive stimulant
known as "meth."

After 18 months, more than 200 thefts, and more than two dozen arrests, the
situation is not getting any better, Wheeler said.

The thieves tormenting southern Cayuga County are an unorganized group of
modern-day bootleggers. They've made state Route 34 their pipeline,
stealing anhydrous ammonia and taking it back to Bradford County, Pa.,
where meth is made to sell along New York's Southern Tier and in eastern
Pennsylvania, authorities said.

In Bradford County, police have made about three dozen felony arrests.