Some American farmers and agricultural retailers are victims of illegal drug traffickers.
Drug dealers are stealing anhydrous ammonia from retailers and producers and using it to make methamphetamine, also known as poor man’s cocaine.
Crooks, who process the anhydrous ammonia, use it as a reactor with meth’s main ingredients like ephedrine and lithium to produce the stimulant.
While the ingredients in meth can be bought commercially, anhydrous ammonia cannot, motivating thieves to prey on agricultural retailers.
“There has been an influx of activity in terms of new labs being set up by individuals who are trying to make meth which is inhaled, injected or cooked,” said Floyd Gaibler of the Agricultural Retailers Association in Washington, D.C.
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“It’s become an increasing problem to the point where a task force has been set up to see if we can find some proactive alternative to address this.”
So far, the problem is concentrated in the United States.
The RCMP and fertilizer distributors in Saskatchewan say they are unaware of any anhydrous ammonia thefts in the province.
“That’s the first we’ve heard about this sort of thing,” said RCMP Cpl. Gary MacDonald, of Prince Albert. “It’s a pretty touchy issue for people to try to steal ammonia because they would have to have a way of handling it. It’s not like stealing gas out of a gas container. That’s pretty touchy stuff.”
Nelson Strong, the regional operations co-ordinator at United Grain Growers Ltd. in Regina, was surprised to find such a problem existed.
But in the United States, the anti-meth industry task force, composed of agricultural businesses and Iowa law officials, is finding inexpensive ways for retailers to protect their product.
The ARA is sending information packs to agricultural retailers warning them of the problem and outlining steps to help secure facilities from potential thefts.
The task force is also trying to find a substance legitimate users can add to anhydrous ammonia to make it ineffective in meth recipes without adverse affects on the fertilizer’s efficiency or making it harmful to the equipment used to store or spread it.
Most thieves steal unnoticeably small amounts of ammonia and transport it in propane tanks or coolers, but Gaibler said entire tanks have disappeared.
The crooks do not need much ammonia to make usable amounts of meth. However, for each kilogram of meth produced, six kg of toxic byproducts are also produced, which are often dumped on nearby fields.
Anhydrous ammonia is commonly used by farmers as a source of nitrogen fertilizer. It is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, and is one of the most dangerous chemicals used in agriculture. Ammonia is a colorless gas but is used as a liquid in fertilizer.
