WAR AGAINST METHAMPHETAMINE COMES TO FARMS ON PA. BORDER

VENICE CENTER - Across the back window of Paul Wheeler's pickup hangs a
12-gauge shotgun. A rifle sits across the bench seat. Both are handy for
turkey season and woodchucks in the way. But they also serve as protection.
Wheeler and other Cayuga County farmers face an unlikely war on drugs in
their fields of corn, wheat and soybeans, reported The Post-Standard of
Syracuse on Sunday.

They began to worry about their families' safety after drug dealers figured
out the farmers use a fertilizer - anhydrous ammonia - that happens to be
perfect for making methamphetamine, a cheap, highly addictive stimulant
known as "meth."

"It might not be the right thing to do. The sheriff tells you it's not the
right thing to do," Wheeler told the newspaper. "But I'm willing to grab
one of these guys and take care of things."

After 18 months, more than 200 thefts, and more than two dozen arrests, the
situation is not getting any better, Wheeler said.

The thieves tormenting southern Cayuga County are an unorganized group of
modern-day bootleggers. They've made state Route 34 their pipeline,
stealing anhydrous ammonia and taking it back to Bradford County, Pa.,
where meth is made to feed addicts along New York's Southern Tier and
eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

In Bradford County, police have made about three dozen felony arrests, and
both sides are bulking up: The drug makers have automatic weapons, and the
police borrowed a Humvee from the Pentagon for raiding meth labs.

Bradford County authorities have seized labs that range in size from a
Bunsen burner and Pyrex pan in the woods to a complex network of plastic
tubes, glass cylinders and metal piping that resembles a high school
chemistry lab.

In Cayuga County, where meth making was unheard of until recently, police
have discovered at least four labs in the last year. The average homeowner
could probably find most of the ingredients for cooking meth - like lithium
batteries, matches and liquid solvents - in a kitchen junk drawer or
medicine cabinet.

That easy availability is what sets meth apart from more expensive drugs
such as cocaine and heroin.

"We've seen a large increase in the number of 'mom and pop' labs set up in
doublewides and campers - even hotel rooms," said Mark Nemier, a special
agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in Syracuse.

Police have arrested more than 30 runners in southern Cayuga County in the
past year. Authorities also are targeting Tioga, Tompkins and Chemung counties.

Nearly every runner caught hailed from a small region in northern
Pennsylvania nicknamed "Meth Valley" - a quiet area at the foot of the
Endless Mountains, about 90 minutes south of the Cayuga County farms.

"Imagine how many places you can go in a county like ours and make meth,"
said Bradford County Sheriff Steven Evans. Federal narcotics officials call
meth the No. 1 drug problem in rural America.

As the problem grows, farmers are acting to protect their property. Most
say the cost of replacing the stolen fertilizer is not the issue - it's the
damage and uncertainty the thieves cause.

"You just don't know if these guys are wired up on this stuff, or if they
have knives and guns on them," Wheeler said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has asked FBI Director Robert Mueller
to provide local agencies with support, but local police and farmers are
dubious of getting help, given the war on terrorism.

"Something bad'll happen before it's done, I'm sure of it," Wheeler said.
"Somebody's going to get hurt. It may be a farmer, it may not. But we've
got to try to do something about it."