NEW WAY, OLD PRODUCT, SAME METH

Cheif Deputy: 'When You've Got Gas, You're The Man.'

Lake City police are finding that the methamphetamine-related criminal
may have found an old product for a new task. Lake City police are
investigating thefts of air-conditioning coolants.

Officer Richard Foschino said at least two incidents have come in as
complaints, but some residents may have called a repairman and not
alerted the Police Department.

"Coolants are used (in meth making) the same way as anhydrous
ammonia," Foschino said.

He said that companies who use anhydrous ammonia for business purposes
are securing it better because of theft.

In the most recent incident in Lake City, thieves hit Lake City Middle
School. Reports said someone entered a fenced area where the
air-conditioning unit is located and used some type of tubing to
transfer Freon from the unit to a portable container.

Police believe the theft occurred on Friday, but the incident was not
discovered until Monday. The cooler at the school was deprived of
coolant and cases of meat, cheese, chicken, pies, orange juice and
other food and food products were spoiled.

The cost of repair to the unit was estimated at $300, but the food
value was estimated at nearly $2,500.

Foschino said homeowners who have had to call a repairman and learned
of a shortage of coolant should tell the Police Department.

"We need to see if we can establish a particular location or a pattern
of thefts," Foschino said.

Anderson County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Lewis Ridenour said
he is hearing of some air-conditioning thefts but "we have had no
reports of it yet."

"Residents may not know what is happening," Ridenour said.

He said that meth-makers in the Lake City and Briceville areas have
predominately used the so-called "Nazi" method, which uses anhydrous
ammonia. Because several major suppliers of the ammonia are currently
in custody or have been charged with a crime, the gas has been less
available.

Ridenour said those suppliers were getting anhydrous ammonia from out
of state or from other counties.

"I know they are having a hard time getting gas; and, when its scarce,
it drives the price up," he said.

"When you've got gas, you're the man."

Ridenour said when meth first started turning up in Anderson County,
most of what law enforcement was seeing were "cat labs," or
methcathinone. He said cat labs are still seen in many areas of the
county, but anhydrous labs are catching up.

Anhydrous ammonia is a compound formed by the combination of two
gaseous elements - nitrogen and hydrogen. Ammonia is a widely used
refrigerant in industrial refrigeration systems because it can be
liquefied easily by compression or cooling and when returned to its
gaseous state, it absorbs large amounts of heat from its surroundings.
Ammonia refrigeration systems are found in the food, beverage,
petro-chemical and cold storage industries.

Oliver Springs Police Chief Kenneth Morgan said his department has not
had reports of coolant thefts, and he had not heard of a process where
a coolant would be used.

"Freon has been used in the manufacturing process," said Phil Rust, an
agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Knoxville.

Rust said the coolant would not be a replacement for anhydrous
ammonia, but a whole different way of processing meth. He also said he
had not seen the process in Tennessee.

Rust said he does not believe the coolant in the thefts is Freon
because a federal law enacted several years ago made Freon replacement
illegal.

He said whatever is being used for Freon replacement is probably what
the thieves are stealing, and they may not know what it is.

To report a related theft, call the Lake City Police Department at
426-7402 or any local law enforcement agency.