METH COUNTS BRING PRISON TERMS

Two Southeast Missouri men with no prior criminal records will serve five- and seven-year sentences respectively in federal prison for making methamphetamine.

"A lot depends on the amount that they are found to be responsible for making," said Teresa Bright-Pearson, assistant federal attorney.

Edward L. Hargrove of Allenville, Mo., and Randy Bishop of Poplar Bluff, Mo., were sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau.

Scott County authorities had charged Hargrove, 44, in 1999 with possession of chemicals to make meth, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance.

As those charges were pending, firefighters responded to a fire at a woodworking shop next to Hargrove's house in March, which is near Chaffee, Mo. Several small explosions involving liquid propane tanks and aerosol cans sent debris more than 100 feet through the air.

Although propane tanks holding anhydrous ammonia and aerosol cans of ether are common ingredients in methamphetamine, no evidence of manufacturing was gathered from the fire, Bright-Pearson said.

Six weeks following the fire, two officers with the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force searched Hargrove's residence and found several jars containing a liquid and grayish substance and other items used to manufacture methamphetamine in the attic.

Hargrove admitted to the officers that he planned to make meth from the items in the attic, Bright-Pearson said.

The evidence seized from the attic was sent to the Drug Enforcement Agency laboratory in Chicago where analysis showed Hargrove's jars contained about 150 grams of a mixture of methamphetamine and 92 grams of pseudoephedrine.

Bishop, 42, had taken a tank of anhydrous ammonia from a confidential informant last March. While the informant was in Bishop's house, Bishop manufactured 178 grams of a mixture containing meth, Bright-Pearson said.