AUTHORITIES MAKE MAJOR ARREST IN METH PROBE

Indictments Unsealed

ATLANTA (AP) -- Forty-nine people and 16 corporations were charged in
indictments unsealed Friday with supplying common everyday items from
antifreeze to matchbooks to informants who had claimed they were using the
products to make methamphetamine.

The investigation, which began in early 2004, focused on convenience stores
in six north Georgia counties and was based on complaints from the public.
Authorities began arresting the suspects Friday.

Businesses raided in the investigation ranged from small groceries or delis
to tobacco shops.

Investigators had informants go into each of the stores and buy ingredients
used to make methamphetamine after telling the clerk or owner of the store
that the items were being sought for that purpose.

The ingredients sold included pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, camping fuel,
antifreeze and matchbooks. The items are not illegal to sell, but selling
them for the purposes of making meth is.

The government said in a statement accompanying the indictments, which were
returned May 7 but sealed until Friday, that because of the increase of
meth manufacturing in eastern Tennessee, northwest Georgia and northeast
Alabama, a "gray market" has developed.

The counties the investigation focused on are Catoosa, Chattooga, Floyd,
Whitfield, Walker and Dade.