FARMERS FIRST LINE OF METH DEFENSE

Drug Makers Drawn To Rural Ammonia Tanks

On a gravel patch just down the road from Gene Seale's Meadville home sit
several anhydrous ammonia tanks, beckoning a new breed of criminal -
crystal methamphetamine cooks.

They come in the night, drug-addled, desperate and usually armed. Without
invitation, they drive past the house and pull up beside the big, white
tanks. They need the chemical to make their dope: volatile people handling
a volatile chemical.

"One thief stabbed a deputy sheriff in the hand with a screwdriver," said
Seale, 69. "Some of them get violent. Some of them got guns too."

Despite the risks, Seale and other area farmers and farm suppliers watch
the night, hoping to catch a thief and send a message to the meth
community. But so far they're fighting a costly and losing battle.

Anhydrous ammonia - only available in bulk to farmers and to businesses
that use ammonia refrigeration systems - is the cheapest source of nitrogen
for Seale and other area farmers, who inject the chemical into the soil.
The fertilizer is typically stored in 1,000-gallon tanks that look like
miniature white submarines. Before and between soil applications, the tanks
may sit unattended far from the nearest residence.

Franklin County authorities estimate thieves have stolen from Seale more
than 30 times in the last few years. One thief traveled from Alabama,
lawmen say, aided by directions posted on the Internet by another meth cook.

In other parts of southwest Mississippi and southeast Louisiana, anhydrous
thefts are on the rise. Sixth Circuit Court District Attorney Ronnie Harper
said that since 1998 he's heard of about 40 anhydrous thefts in his
district, which includes Amite, Franklin, Wilkinson and Adams counties. He
knew of no thefts before 1998.

The Environmental Protection Agency, farm insurance companies and others
recommend a variety of safeguards against anhydrous theft, such as locks on
the valves and fencing around the tanks.

But Jerry Fruge and Dean Thomas, both owners of farm supply stores in
Franklinton, La., think such safeguards a waste.

"You could put up a chain-link fence up," Fruge said. "What would that
take? A pair of snips."

An exasperated Thomas agreed. "As for security, you might as well forget
it. You can lock it, get a guard dog. They'll cut the lock, kill the dog
with rat poison to get it."

Farmers typically use anhydrous to fertilize corn crops in the spring and
pastures in the fall. The pressurized liquid freeze-dries skin. When leaked
from a tank, the cold liquid becomes a toxic gas that arrests respiratory
systems and burns lungs. A large leak can aerosolize, or form a cloud made
of small liquid droplets.

But meth's allure proves stronger than the risks involved with its
production. All one needs is the gumption and a steady hand, for one slip
could mean severe burns or even death.

In March 2000, a botched meth theft caused anhydrous fumes to spew out of a
tank valve in Lincoln County near Interstate 55. Some passing motorists,
presumably traveling at speeds near 70 mph, pulled over, overcome by the
gas cloud. Twenty people needed medical attention.

Meth cookers often use hoses to siphon anhydrous into a five-gallon
pressurized propane tank or similar container.

Some thieves are bolder. Police caught one in Franklin County who brought
no hose or container to the scene of the crime, only spray paint cans. The
man told his captors he planned to paint the farmer's tank black, write
"Smokey's BBQ" on the side, hitch it to his pickup truck and drive off.

Thomas, owner of Circle T Fertilizer & Seed Co. and anhydrous supplier to
numerous Mississippi farmers, said recent thefts at his tank storage
facility and the threat of meth cookers causing a hazardous spill have
contributed to increased insurance premiums.

Thomas pays $60,000 per year to insure his 60 two-ton tanks, up 100 percent
from a few years ago. He said he passes the added expense along to the
farmers and is considering ceasing his anhydrous business altogether.

Bob Graham, director of corporate communications for Farmland Insurance of
Iowa, said repeated thefts or leaks of the hazardous chemical might inflate
premiums.

"If a customer is in a position where there's an extreme amount of theft
taking place at their facilities, could it affect their rates? Possibly,
because the insurance company has to consider losses," said Graham, whose
company insures some area farm suppliers.

Crystal meth thieves put Fruge out of the anhydrous business. The lost
revenue forced him to fire three employees, two of whom worked for the
company since 1968.

"We shut our plant down, which really just kills us and the farmer," said
Fruge, co-owner of S&M Fertilizer. "We've had one tank we've never
recovered and probably never will.

"One of my main concerns was somebody hooking it up, driving it through
Slidell, turning it over, killing a bunch of people, and they're not going
to look at the person who spilled it. They're going to look at me."

One Friday night last year, on a weekend when tourists flooded Franklinton,
Fruge hid in a deer camp near his tank storage field, figuring a meth thief
would turn up. The local sheriff's department also staked out the area.

They were not disappointed. Around 9 p.m., a thief showed and deputies made
an arrest.

"He was armed, man - a 9mm. If I had caught him, they would have blew my
... away. My employees don't need to lose their lives," Fruge said.

What especially irks Fruge is that thieves create such danger just to steal
a few dollars worth of fertilizer.

"We can have an accident in town and lose everything. It's just not
economically feasible," he said. "What kills me is these crackheads hook
these tanks, haul tail, just regardless of life. You can't put anything in
there to hurt them. You can't do anything to them, but they can take your
livelihood. It doesn't make good sense. But to us it made good sense. We
got rid of it before they got rid of us."

Gene Seale and son Jimmy are becoming fairly adept at identifying some of
the telltale signs of an anhydrous burglary in progress. One night Jimmy
awoke to what sounded like a "drum rolling around the back of the truck."
The drum was a thief's five-gallon butane tank. Lawmen caught that thief.

Gene admits the numerous thefts over the last few years amount to an
imperceptible economic loss. He worries more about unwittingly walking into
a cloud of anhydrous ammonia.

"We go up in the morning, we don't know if the thing is left like it should
be or not," he said.

Sometimes the Seales find what lawmen refer to as "bones," the hazardous
dregs left after a meth cook.

"The next morning, checking on cattle, we find their starting fluid cans,
lithium, where they tear the batteries, and their pills on the side of the
road, like they stopped right there and made it on the side of the road,"
said Jimmy, 46.

But the Seales' vigilance has paid off a few times. They even visit some of
the thieves they help put in jail.

"Have you ever seen anybody on this stuff?" Jimmy said. "I had never seen
anybody on crack cocaine. They tell me you can't get off it. That's what
crystal meth is like.

"Some of these people we caught later on, I talk to them up in the jail.
They say, 'I was up for six days.' I don't see why anybody would want to
fool with this stuff."

Next: The dangers meth users and cooks pose to lawmen.

Index

US MS: Meth Hits SW Miss. Hard And Fast http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1152/a01.html

US: Meth Cooks Prefer 'Nazi' Method http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1152/a05.html

US MS: Farmers First Line Of Meth Defense http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1171/a14.html

US MS: Lawmen Fight New Battle http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1181/a09.html