Snap 08-02-07

Methamphetamine Awareness and Prevention Project of South Dakota

METH Awareness And Prevention Project of South Dakota

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August 2, 2007

In Kentucky - Sheriff’s deputies arrived at a home to arrest a 21-year-old man for not showing up at a court hearing and discovered a mobile Meth lab in a car on the property. The 21-year-old man was arrested on the scene; a woman was captured when she attempted to escape on a four-wheeler and police are still searching for another man who was seen running from the home. The Meth lab is believed to be a red P set-up

In Texas - A 51-year-old man named as part of a 2005 organized Meth ring pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of five-years probation. He was charged with possessing chemicals with the intent to manufacture and engaging in organized criminal activity. He could have received sentences of up to 20-years for possession and life imprisonment for the organized crime charge. He is the next to last suspect of the nearly three dozen charged in the Meth operation.

In Tennessee – Police busted a Meth lab in a restaurant’s parking lot. An officer pulled over a car for erratic driving. There were four people inside the car, one suspect tried to run away, but was caught after a short foot chase. Police then discovered a partial Meth lab in the car. They believe the suspects had just left a drugstore where they may have been trying to pick up pseudoephedrine. All four suspects were decontaminated, and then arrested.

In Indiana – A suspect in an attempted anhydrous ammonia theft tipped officers off to a Meth manufacturing operation run out of a home. Police set up surveillance on the property, where they saw a woman with a small child in her arms answer the door. Believing the baby was in a house where Meth production was going on, they got a search warrant and entered the home. Officers discovered evidence that the 26-year-old man who lived in the home ground ephedrine pills and extracted lithium strips from batteries to make Meth, had gathered the other necessary materials to manufacture Meth, and had at least three grams of Meth and more than 10-grams of ephedrine. He is charged with a range of Meth-related felonies. The woman officers saw at the home, 21-years old, is charged with neglect of a dependent and possession of marijuana, visiting a common nuisance and taking a child to a common nuisance. Her five-month-old daughter was placed with a family member.

In Ohio - Police arrested a 37-year-old man who allegedly was threatening people with a handgun near a hotel where he was staying. Officers who searched his hotel room discovered a Meth lab. The man was arrested in the hotel parking lot and officers found the gun in a bathroom in the hotel’s lobby. He had been staying at the hotel for about a week. A woman staying with the suspect was not charged.

In Wisconsin - A 48-year-old man changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity in a case charging him with Meth manufacturing. His attorney asked the court to remove him from jail and place him in a psychiatric hospital where his withdrawal symptoms from Meth could be treated. A psychiatrist who examined the defendant concluded that he suffered from withdrawal symptoms from chronic Meth use that could continue indefinitely. The charges against the man alleges he manufactured Meth in a home he was staying in earlier this year while out on bond for another case charging him with similar crimes from 2006. He faces 12 total charges related to Meth manufacturing in two cases in addition to drug charges in a different county. If convicted of all the charges against him in all three cases, he faces a maximum of 219 years in prison and $370,000 in fines.