HUNTING METH ON HORSEBACK

Indiana Sheriff Thinks Outside The Patrol Car To Catch Drug Makers

MONROE CITY, Ind. - Communities searching for innovative ways to stop
methamphetamine production have tried distributing locks for fertilizer
tanks and training road crews to identify meth labs.

Steve Luce, a sheriff from Knox County, Ind., with a Wild West streak, dons
a cowboy hat and hops on a horse.

Since March, the sheriff and his deputies have gone by horseback through
forest and farms three or four times a month, looking for the labs in places
where cars and even all-terrain vehicles cannot go.

"It's my job to let them know we don't want them here," said Luce, a former
heavyweight wrestler.

Use of methamphetamine is soaring in the Midwest and South, especially in
rural areas. It is a highly addictive stimulant that can be snorted, smoked
or injected.

The meth labs, consisting of kitchen appliances and glass jars, can be small
enough to fit in backpacks; at least one found in southern Indiana was on
the back of a motorcycle. Most of the ingredients to make meth are easily
found at supermarkets, except for anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer commonly
found on farms.

Knox County is popular for meth labs because of an abundance of the
fertilizer and of rural areas that provide hiding places. In 1999, nine labs
were found in the county. Last year, the total was 71.

Luce said it's not uncommon for 70 percent of the inmates in his jail to be
there because of meth-related crimes.

"They get hooked on this stuff," he said. "It's evil."

For farmers, meth also is a menace. Thieves stumble onto their property to
steal the fertilizer. They hide labs in the middle of cornfields, unknown to
a farmer until farm machinery runs over them.

Some farmers are afraid to call police, said Chad Brown, a salesman at
Grower Co-Op in Vincennes.

Brown said the farmers are afraid the lab owners will come back and tear up
the farmer's equipment.

In 2000, a farmer in Flat Rock, Ill., was shot in the eye after chasing two
men trying to steal anhydrous ammonia. He survived but was blinded.

Luce said the horseback patrols are helping to win farmers' trust. He
invited farmers to a hog roast before the patrols started and persuaded them
to let him go on their land. Others agreed to lend seven horses to the
program.

Since patrols started in the spring, he and his deputies have found 18 labs,
17 of which were inactive.

"The horse definitely has an advantage. They can go where four-wheelers
can't go," Luce said.

On a recent day, Luce and his men saddled four horses and headed to Long
Pond. Deputies followed on four-wheelers bought with $7,600 in drug-seizure
money.

As they navigated hilly, steep paths, Luce and his deputies looked for signs
of meth, such as the smell of ether or ammonia. They stopped when they saw
fabric hanging from a tree, knowing it could be a marker left by a meth-lab
cook.

They didn't find any methamphetamine that day. But First Sgt. Dave Phelps,
team leader of the clandestine lab team for the Indiana State Police, said
the horse patrols are a practical solution in a state where the number of
meth labs rose from 988 in 2002 to 1,260 in 2003.

"So many are hidden out in the woods and fields in desolate areas," Phelps
said. "If any agency really wants to aggressively look for them, you've got
to look outside the box."

Luce hopes the inroads he has made with farmers continue to yield results
among his county's 40,000 residents.

"It's about building a bond and trust," Luce said. "It's trying to get the
community in a whole new way of thinking."