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.