METH GETS CLOSER

Rural Areas South Of Here Ideal For Producing Illegal Drug

Methamphetamine production has spread across Indiana like a cancer. It has
not metastasized in east central Indiana yet, but just south of here it is
eating its way into Franklin County.

"It's an epidemic," Sheriff Dale Maxie said. The number of meth-related
arrests has quadrupled in the past year. "It's hit us hard, but we're
working on it hard," Maxie said.

Franklin County is ideal territory for producing methamphetamine. "Cookers
(people who produce methamphetamine) are looking for counties with open,
secluded areas," Maxie said. The process for making meth produces a
pervasive stench. Franklin County has another attractive quality for drug
makers: it's next to Butler and Montgomery counties in Ohio, providing easy
access to the Cincinnati market. "Most of our arrests have been in the
southeastern part of the county," Maxie said. Not much of a problem here

While methamphetamine labs are multiplying in the rural solitude of Franklin
County, labs and meth both remain a rarity in Wayne County and Richmond. "We
just haven't had that much here," Richmond Police Capt. Bill Shake said. He
just finished leading the Wayne County Drug Task Force. Wayne County has a
different epidemic. "It's still crack cocaine," Sgt. Tom Porfidio said. Porf
idio has just returned to the Drug Task
Force, replacing Shake.

Crack has been the bane of local drug enforcement officers for a decade.
It's not getting worse, but it's not getting much better. "We've managed to
maintain the status quo," Porfidio said. "But it's not hard for people to
imagine what would happen if we weren't here."

"The only trends we see with crack is where it's sold," Shake said. Police
crack down on one neighborhood and it pops up someplace else.

'Cookers' paradise

While the immediate area hasn't been an active retail market for
methamphetamine, it has been a source for a key component in making
methamphetamine. Anhydrous ammonia, used by farmers as a fertilizer, is a
key precursor for making methamphetamine. It's available at farm
cooperatives, stored in tanks to be spread on fields.

Drug makers target the co-ops looking for raw materials.

Co-ops in Union County and near Boston have periodically been targets for
thieves who sell anhydrous for as much as $500 a gallon to cookers. The
spate of robberies slacked off in Union County, "Until about a week ago,"
Union County Deputy Jeff Franklin said. The department is investigating a
recent theft. "We got hit several times early last year," Franklin said.

Wayne County was having problems at the same time. Sheriff Matt Strittmatter
enlisted help in preventing the thefts with a presentation at the Wayne
County Soil and Water Conservation District last March.

"Since we've made the farming community aware of the problem, we haven't had
many problems," Strittmatter said. The Wayne County sheriff had urged
farmers to lock up anhydrous ammonia when they had it on the farm and to
keep an eye out for strange cars in the area. The thieves usually are from
out of town, people who drive here to take advantage of the availability of
anhydrous ammonia and the isolation of rural co-ops.

A look at the numbers

Last year, the Indiana State Police busted 1,260 illegal meth labs, an
increase of 26 percent over 2002. Maxie is keeping track of numbers in his
department's meth-related
arrests. During the first nine months of 2003, there were 179. During the
same period in 2002, there had been 41. The number of arrests does not
equate to that number of labs shut down. Maxie estimates there were 34 drug
lab operations during 2003.

The increase in arrests in Franklin County is the result of both more drug
activity and more intense enforcement. "It's a cooperative effort," Maxie
said. "Law enforcement officers from a lot of agencies got together and
decided to crack down on this."

What's being done

Fighting drugs requires cooperation. Drug activities overlap jurisdictions.
Indiana State Police have given some troopers special training in detecting
and eliminating methamphetamine activity, then assigned those troopers
around the state. Troopers Paul Harrison and Shane Stephens are the meth
specialists assigned to the Connersville State Police post.

They spend much of their duty time working with local jurisdictions
ferreting out potential methamphetamine activity. They range the entire
Connersville District that stretches into
Franklin County and north through Wayne County. When post Commander Lt. Jim
Edwards returned to this district in 1999, methamphetamine was a blip on the
radar.
"It was already a problem on the west side of the state," Edwards said. "We
knew it was coming. We tracked it across the state."

In recent years, "We've seen a big increase in both labs and anhydrous
thefts," Edwards said. Police can interrupt the methamphetamine trade,
shutting down labs
with arrests. But prosecution moves slowly. "We still haven't had a trial or
a conviction," Maxie said.

One way to uncover methamphetamine activity is to watch for people buying
unusual quantities of the ingredients needed for the illegal drug. Cold
medicine is one precursor needed in large amounts. Pharmacists and
convenience store clerks have been alerted to notify police when someone
purchases large quantities of decongestant without sniffling.

Methamphetamine has moved from west to east in Indiana, getting their first
firm toeholds around Terre Haute. "We believe it's here, it's everywhere,"
Preble County (Ohio) Sheriff Mike Simpson said. "We haven't made a lot
arrests yet, but it takes
time for these things to take off."

Deputies did uncover a suspected lab in an isolated area near Camden last
summer.