Badges - Methamphetamine seeps into idyllic Amish counties in Ohio
- From: CarlGlas@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: Badges@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 09 May 2011 07:13:47 -0500
MILLERSBURG, Ohio -- More than 150 Amish men and
women filled a farm building this spring to learn
about the chemical curse that is surrounding them.
Methamphetamine, the drug peddled by outlaw
bikers and street-corner dealers for decades, is
on the rise in the land of the horse and buggy --
though no one caught with the drug in the area has been Amish.
The rural hills of Holmes and Wayne counties,
about 90 minutes south of Cleveland, is a place
where violent crime and major drug trafficking
have seldom been a problem. Many associate the
region with Ohio's largest Amish population,
quilt shops and large family farms.
But beneath the idyllic setting is an underbelly
of criminal cookers who have begun brewing the
gritty, illicit stimulant into a growing drug of
choice in a region that might be one of the last
in the state to face the drug's scourge.
"It's a jolt to the stereotype of the quaint,
rural community that we have in Amish country,"
said Paul Miller, the director of the Amish and
Mennonite Heritage Center in Berlin, Ohio. "It's
a jolt to our own values. We don't condone it. We don't want to see it happen.
"I don't profess to be totally cognizant of what
is going on, but from observation and following
the police blotter, you can see that it is here."
In the past decade, meth has damaged Ohio's rural
communities, much like crack cocaine did to the
state's cities in the 1980s and 1990s. And Wayne
and Holmes counties -- a combined population of
about 150,000 -- are beginning to see the first dramatic signs of that damage.
Amish church leaders have become concerned enough
about the drug and others to meet with law enforcement. The reason is simple.
"The devil doesn't care where we live, whether in
the city or in the country," said Ed Miller, an
Amish general contractor from Apple Creek. "He
seeks out the weakest. . . . There's a big
concern about [methamphetamine.] We don't want that."
David Smith heads the Medway Drug Enforcement
Agency, an anti-drug group that works mostly in
Wayne, Holmes and Medina counties. In 2007, the
agency dismantled one lab in the region. Last year, it cleaned up 17.
The region is less than a half hour from the
epicenter of Ohio's meth explosion -- in Summit
County, where the drug took off in about 2004.
That's when authorities broke up 126 labs, more
than any other county in the state. The numbers
have dipped since then, but authorities routinely
conduct raids there and make major arrests.
Making meth in Millersburg and Wooster is much
different from producing it in Akron. That's
because it is so easy to go unnoticed in rural
sheds and farm fields, authorities say. It also
has been affected by new, quicker cooking methods.
One of the telltale signs of cooking meth is a
noxious vapor that can sicken anyone in close
proximity and tar the insides of homes. In rural
Holmes and Wayne counties, the vapor is much
harder to detect because the houses are far apart.
"You always see it in the cities, but people will
feel more secure in the rural areas because it is
so open," said Gary Aurand, the chief probation officer in Holmes County.
Consider:
? In March, authorities raided a rural home in
Holmes County and charged Dannel Weaver, seizing
what officials called in a news release "yet
another methamphetamine lab." Sheriff's deputies
found a number of materials, including anhydrous ammonia, a farm fertilizer.
Anhydrous ammonia added to the cold medicine
pseudoephedrine and lithium helps create meth. In
the region's farm fields, anhydrous ammonia is
commonplace: It helps corn and other crops grow.
Weaver's arrest came a year after he was
sentenced to probation in Wayne County for meth charges.
? A 14-year-old girl tested positive for
methamphetamine in the months preceding a raid in
July on a Millersburg home where her mother and
her mother's boyfriend lived. Authorities seized
cold tablets, batteries and other chemicals used
to make meth. The raid came after a police
officer pulled the couple's trash and found
chemicals used in making the drug, as well as the
drug's residue. The trash pull followed an
informant's tip, according to court records.
The teenager's mother, Lisa Wilson, 34, was
sentenced to four years in prison on meth and
child-endangering charges; the boyfriend, Delane
Goodwin, 38, was sentenced to eight years on
similar charges. Both pleaded guilty in Holmes County Common Pleas Court.
? Meth has joined marijuana as one of the most
common drugs to show up in drug screens of people
tested by probation officers in Holmes County,
said Aurand, the probation official.
In the past 12 months, drug officials seized
eight meth labs in Holmes County. While that
might be two weeks' work for Summit County drug
agents, it has stunned many in a county with 42,366 people.
"I've seen more meth in the last year than in the
past 20 years," said Holmes County Prosecutor
Steve Knowling. "From what I'm seeing, it has
become the predominant hard drug of choice."
?Two Millersburg men were indicted April 28 in
U.S. District Court in Williamsport, Pa., with
conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Gary
Stutzman, 41, and Dean Troyer, 44, were accused
of delivering more than 100 grams of the drug to
undercover officers near State College, Pa.,
earlier in the month. Investigators estimated the
drug shipment was worth $11,000.
The indictment in the case says Stutzman and
Troyer were involved in a conspiracy to
distribute the drug since June 2010, but it does
not indicate whether there were any other sales
made to authorities. The men denied the allegations in court.
? Last November, authorities raided a meth lab at
the home of Troy Lastohkein, north of
Millersburg. The home stands less than 1,000 feet
from Holmesville Elementary School. Lastohkein,
44, pleaded guilty in April in Holmes County
Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to eight
years in prison. Two children were at home at the
time of the raid, according to published reports.
"It's disconcerting," said Mike Shreffler, the
superintendent of Southeast Schools, a rural
district that includes the elementary school.
"We're a family-oriented community. It shows that
these things can crop up anywhere."
So how did the drug spread so quickly in the two counties?
Some argue that the drug has been bubbling below
the surface in the counties for years, but
aggressive police and sheriff's deputies are
finding it more often, thanks to better training
and informants. While that may explain the jump
in the number of arrests, it doesn't address how
the drug has become a top drug of choice among people arrested.
A gap-toothed, 19-year-old meth user who declined
to give his name said cookers have formed
cliques, teaching and talking about various
methods of making the drug. And soon, they spread
out, cooking and feeding their own habits.
"You have one, then five, then 10," he said.
"Pretty soon, you have a lot of people making it."
But possibly one of the simplest reasons for the
drug's growth in the farm region is because of a
relatively new way of making it, what cookers
call "the one-pot" or the "shake and bake" methods.
Several years ago, most dealers labored for
hours, cooking and stirring the ingredients into
a chemical stew. In recent years, however, a new
form allows dealers to produce meth in 2-liter
bottles, enabling them to make the drug along any
road, pitch the debris and drive off with a fresh batch.
And that leaves officials concerned. They fear
the new method may push the drug even farther
into the rural corners of Holmes and Wayne counties.
But officials are quick to stress the region is
not a drug hotspot, a place with a reputation
like Scioto County for prescription pills or
Meigs County for marijuana. Part of the reason is
that it's a tight-knit community and police are
quickly adapting their investigative techniques.
That said, residents know that the scourge of
meth is still out there and that they must remain
on guard to protect their way of life.
That's why Ed Miller, the Amish contractor in
Wayne County's town of Apple Creek, will keep
pushing law enforcement authorities to speak with
Amish families about the dangers of the chemical demon.
"We all have souls, and we're all going through
this together," Miller said. "We believe that if
we can help one person, one person, it will be worth it."
Source:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/05/methamphetamine_seeps_into_idy.html
The Badges Law Enforcement Discussion Group - Est. 1997
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