Anhydrous ammonia thefts down as meth recipes change

Several years ago, methamphetamine manufacturers were so keen to obtain anhydrous ammonia that some would steal it out of tanks within sight of the farmers who owned it.

"Years ago, they would go out and steal it in the farmer's field while he was on the tractor," said Capt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department, recalling such an instance in New Hamburg, Missouri.

Today, officers in Southeast Missouri said, anhydrous ammonia thefts are much less common.

"I can't remember the last time we worked a case of that nature," Bledsoe said.

Statistics were not readily available, but officers in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Perry counties all said theft of anhydrous ammonia -- a strongly alkaline chemical commonly used as an agricultural fertilizer -- has dropped in recent years.

Perry County, Missouri, Sheriff Gary Schaaf attributes the drop in part to the scarcity of other chemicals involved in methamphetamine production.

Pseudoephedrine, a decongestant found in many cold medicines and the key ingredient in methamphetamines, is available by prescription only through most of Southeast Missouri, making it difficult for manufacturers to obtain enough for large batches, Schaaf said.

"That's worked well," he said.

If the main ingredient isn't available, manufacturers aren't going to bother stealing anhydrous ammonia, Schaaf said.

"There's no sense of going out and taking a chance of getting hurt with that stuff if you can't use it for anything," he said.

Sgt. Mark McClendon of the Missouri State Highway Patrol agreed.

"I just think that when the feds kind of put the limit on how much Sudafed you could get ... it kind of slowed that down a bit, kind of slowed down the need for the anhydrous," said McClendon, who is coordinator for the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force.

People still manufacture methamphetamines, but instead of setting up large labs, they mix small amounts of the drug in plastic bottles, sometimes in their cars, Schaaf said.

"A lot of these idiots will use a plastic soda bottle, and -- kaboom! -- there you go. Your car's full of stuff, and you're dead," he said.

For smaller batches, instead of anhydrous ammonia, methamphetamine manufacturers obtain cold packs designed for treating injuries and use the ammonium nitrate inside to trigger the chemical reaction that converts pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine, McClendon said.

Like other officers in the region, Capt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department attributed part of the drop in anhydrous ammonia thefts to restrictions on pseudoephedrine and changes in production methods, but he said people who store and sell the chemical also have helped.

"Part of it, I think, is better security prevention ... by the anhydrous dealers," James said.

McClendon said some of those dealers simply stopped carrying the chemical.

"A lot of the co-ops just quit dealing with anhydrous. They were getting hit night after night, week after week on the thefts," he said.

Stealing anhydrous ammonia isn't just illegal; it's also dangerous, officers said.

Bledsoe recalled a case in Kennett, Missouri, in which a man suffered serious injuries while attempting to steal the chemical.

"I do remember they really got bad there ... a few years ago, down in Kennett, where that idiot was trying to steal anhydrous from that huge anhydrous tank by drilling a hole in the bottom of it," he said.

The "idiot" in question earned chemical burns for his efforts, Bledsoe said.

His misadventure could have had an even worse ending.

"Get a big dose of that stuff and inhale it, it can kill you," Schaaf said.

Bledsoe said methamphetamine users also may be buying the finished product instead of making it themselves.

Last year, federal agents raided a property in Bonne Terre, Missouri, and arrested 25 people accused of running a methamphetamine trafficking ring that brought the drug from Texas to Missouri.

Two of the men arrested in that raid, Brent Bouren and Melvin Scherrer, face state murder charges in connection with the death of tattoo artist Samuel "Tick" Francis of Cape Girardeau.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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