FARMS HOLD INGREDIENT FOR METH

Drug 'cooks' often steal the nitrogen fertilizer anhydrous ammonia
from tanks on farms.

Authorities think many local farmers are becoming theft victims --
and don't even know it.

Thieves are taking the nitrogen fertilizer anhydrous ammonia from
large tanks on area farms and using it to make the illegal drug
methamphetamine, said Shawnee County sheriff's Sgt. Marsha Baird.

It isn't clear how often anhydrous ammonia is stolen in Shawnee
County. Baird said meth makers tend to take only a few gallons at a
time from 500-gallon tanks, so farmers often don't realize they have
been victimized.

Methamphetamine is produced in clandestine labs by "cooks" who
usually have no chemistry training. Unofficial Kansas Bureau of
Investigation records released last week indicate Shawnee County led
the state's counties last year in meth lab seizures with 58.

Though there are many recipes for making meth, Baird said, the most
popular in Shawnee County is clearly a method that uses anhydrous
ammonia. Almost all of the other ingredients needed for that recipe
- -- including cold or allergy tablets, acetone and ether -- are
readily available at stores.

"Normally the cook won't get the anhydrous ammonia until last," Baird
said. "A lot of times we've seized a lab that had everything except
the anhydrous."

Officials say hundreds of 500-gallon anhydrous ammonia tanks dot the
rural areas around Topeka. The noxious chemical is kept inside the
pressurized tanks in its liquid form, said Danny Akin, manager of STE
Ag Services. The business in northwest Shawnee County is a vendor of
anhydrous ammonia.

"For the most part, we own the tanks and rent them out," Akin said.

He said state law requires anyone in possession of the chemical to
store it in an "approved container," meaning a pressurized metal
tank. Thieves generally can release the chemical from the tank by
turning a valve.

"The pressure in the tank will push the anhydrous out," Akin said.

Officials say thieves use hoses to collect the liquid in such
containers as gas cans, plastic milk jugs, fire extinguishers and
tanks normally used for propane grills. Possessing the chemical in
such containers is illegal, Akin said.

Authorities say meth makers generally try to get the noxious chemical
to their labs as quickly as possible.

"You've got to be nuts to steal anhydrous like that, because it will
turn to vapor quick," Akin said. "That's why it has to be under
pressure, to keep it in a liquid form."

Akin said anhydrous ammonia "freezes your skin immediately when it
hits it. We have to wear goggles and rubber gloves when we're working
with it."

Anhydrous ammonia can be fatal if enough is inhaled or absorbed
through the skin. Fortunately, Baird said, there have been no deaths
in Shawnee County linked to thefts of the chemical.

Still, sheriff's officials note, two men were in a moving car in
August 1999 in southwest Shawnee County when anhydrous ammonia was
spilled inside. A deputy stopped the car after seeing it moving with
one of the occupants sticking his head out of a window.

A man in the car suffered chest pains, apparently from breathing the
chemical, and was released after treatment at a Topeka hospital. Both
were then arrested in connection with crimes that included the
attempted manufacture of methamphetamine, a felony.

Last June, sheriff's officials said, two men who tried to steal
anhydrous ammonia from STE Ag Services were caught after a car chase.

Akin said STE has refused service to would-be customers who were
thought to be meth makers.

"We haven't been approached for quite awhile now, but I'm sure
they'll be back," he said.

Akin said a number of owners of anhydrous ammonia tanks have put
locks on them to try to prevent theft.

Baird said County Commissioner Mike Meier, who leaves office Monday,
at one point asked the sheriff's department about the possible
formation of a secured compound where anhydrous ammonia tanks not in
use could be stored.

Meier said Thursday that no such compound had been formed and he
wasn't sure the idea was feasible. He said he thought many farmers
had acted appropriately by purchasing locks for their tanks and
keeping them at places where they could be watched.

Meier discouraged owners from keeping anhydrous ammonia tanks in the
open near public roadways. He noted that quantities of the chemical
had been stolen from one of his relatives.

"I hid the tanks for him," Meier said.