FARMERS WARNED: THIEVES COULD BE DRUG MAKERS

FINDLAY - Hancock County officials want to warn local farmers that illegal
drug manufacturers could be after the anhydrous ammonia they use as corn
fertilizer.

There hasn't been a rash of thefts yet from Hancock County farm fields, but
local police and agriculture officials want the public to be aware and ready.

"We want to be ahead of it, and we want to make people aware of it because
it's coming this way. It's coming from the west and the south," Hancock
County Sheriff Mike Heldman said yesterday.

At farms throughout northwest Ohio, anhydrous ammonia is injected into the
soil as a fertilizer for corn. However, it also is a key ingredient in the
manufacture of the illegal drug methamphetamine.

Gary Wilson, an Ohio State University extension agent in Hancock County,
said theft of anhydrous ammonia has been most problematic in Missouri,
Illinois, and Indiana but it's moving into northwest Ohio.

Hancock County sheriff's deputies investigated one suspected incident last
year in which a hose on a tank at a local farm co-op was tampered with.

In 2001, they also busted two illegal methamphetamine labs in Hancock
County and a third run by the same suspects in Hardin County.

In Williams County, two men and a woman from Indiana were arrested in
January after sheriff's deputies staking out the Edon Farmers Co-op caught
them stealing anhydrous ammonia. All three pleaded guilty to reduced
charges of illegal assembly of chemicals for drugs and were sentenced last
week to five years of community control.

Williams County Sheriff Alan Word said the trio may have hit the co-op as
many as 12 times before they were caught.

"If they would've put the caps back on the tanks and been a little more
discreet, [the co-op] probably wouldn't have known they were taking
anything," he said. "They don't take that much - a few gallons."

Mr. Wilson said because farmers typically buy a 1,000-gallon tank of
anhydrous ammonia to apply to their fields, they would not notice a few
gallons missing.

The problem, he said, is that the chemical is very dangerous, and those who
want to steal it can be as well.

"I'm not really worried, and farmers aren't either, that they are going to
lose it by stealing, but these people are armed," he said. "It's a very
real possibility that a farmer could be shot.

"Our main intent is to try to alert farmers to this so if they see anything
or anyone suspicious, don't do anything; just call the sheriff immediately."

As farmers who use the chemical know, anhydrous ammonia is toxic and
corrosive. It can burn the skin and eyes and can cause death if inhaled.

The increasing theft problem caused the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to issue an alert in 2000 about its health and environmental
implications.

Officials say farmers should not leave partially used tanks in their fields
but should take them to a well-lit area at their farm or lock them up in a
shed. They shouldn't get the tanks until they need them and should return
them as soon as possible after they have used them.

Fertilizer dealers that handle anhydrous ammonia are advised to store the
tanks in well-lit areas, to carefully record and monitor the level of
ammonia in each tank, and install security devices on the tanks.

The key issue, officials said, is education.

"No one has any use for anhydrous ammonia but these thieves, so farmers
have never had to worry about this before," Mr. Wilson said. "Most are very
much unaware of the problem, and the rest are saying, 'This isn't going to
happen to me. Who's going to be stupid enough to mess with this?' They
don't know who they're dealing with."