ILLINOIS UPDATE DRUG PRODUCERS STEAL AMMONIA FROM FARMERS

QUINCY (AP) -- Police say they're seeing a second wave of crime behind
the growth of methamphetamine manufacturing in rural areas: the theft
of anhydrous ammonia from farms and farm suppliers.

Farmers use anhydrous ammonia to replace nitrogen, a valuable
nutrient, in soil after the growing season. But it also is a vital
ingredient in methamphetamine.

"Every retailer at every facility has been hit in one way or another
by these thieves. It's totally out of hand here," said Walt Longo,
crops department manager for Adams County FS, a line of fertilizer
supply stores in central Illinois near the Mississippi River.

Longo said his supply houses are hit by thieves an average of four to
six times a month. Usually, the thieves take only a couple of gallons
of the anhydrous ammonia at a time, siphoning it into thermoses,
coolers and converted propane tanks.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady