Missouri tops U.S. in meth lab seizures

The quantity of methamphetamine laboratories seized in 2010 isn't what some Missouri law enforcement agencies expected and the statistics aren't impressive either, drug task force officials and narcotics investigators agreed Monday.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released the data Friday, revealing that the state ranks No. 1 in the nation for the 10th consecutive year with the 1,960 methamphetamine labs busted state agencies reported last year. The figure represents a 53 percent increase in lab incidents from 2007, when agencies statewide reported 1,285 seizures.

Incidents include the seizure of equipment, working or non-working labs and the discovery of laboratory dump sites, according to the highway patrol. The 2010 figure is up 10 percent from 2009, when a total of 1,774 labs were reported to the highway patrol.

As 2010 came to a close Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force supervisor Kevin Glaser and highway patrol Col. Ron Replogle both expected seizures to top 2,000, despite agencies throughout the state focusing on fighting the methamphetamine problem.

"What's disappointing is the increase we've had over the last couple years and there's still a lot of people out there cooking methamphetamine," Glaser said.

With an emphasis on anti-methamphetamine initiatives -- about 75 percent of the drug task forces' activity is focused on fighting the drug -- Glaser acknowledged there would be an increase in incidents reported.

"We've maintained our same level of enforcement over the last few years," Glaser said. "It's something we certainly concentrate on."

Annually, the SEMO Drug Task Force has an operating budget of about $600,000 and according to Glaser 75 percent of its officers' activity is dedicated to seizing labs and other anti-methamphetamine initiatives.

In a news release issued by the highway patrol, Replogle said the fact the Missouri again leads the nation in incident seizures is an "unfortunate distinction."

"Meth is a deadly drug, with dangerous consequences for all Missouri communities, including increasing criminal activity and endangering the children who grow up in residences where meth is produced and used," he said.

The number of children exposed to methamphetamine and in turn placed in the custody of the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) has increased since 2006, along with the number of lab incidents. In 2006, 66 Missouri children were placed in DSS custody because of exposure and 149 children were affected by methamphetamine exposure, according to department statistics. In 2010, 154 children were placed in their custody and 280 children were reported by law enforcement to be affected by exposure to methamphetamine.

Law enforcement labels lab incidents involving children among the most dangerous.

Stephen Gray, Bollinger County prosecuting attorney, said it was the fact that there were two children, twin boys, in a Zalma, Mo., home when it's owner, Travis Barnes, was manufacturing methamphetamine that landed the man eight years in prison. The meth operation caused the home at 103 Mill St. to explode in October, causing Barnes and his wife, Charlotte, to sustain serious burn injuries. Charlotte Barnes is also charged in the crime; her case is still pending in Bollinger County.

"This was an agreed disposition," Gray said. "With that kind of case you're more likely to see some time when you see people harmed and when there were kids in the residence and house burned too, that's what got him his eight years."

Travis Barnes was sentenced in February. He was sentenced to serve an additional four years for child endangerment.

According to the highway patrol, meth-related offenses account for approximately 31 percent of all drug convictions in Missouri and cost the state approximately $17.6 million per year for incarceration and supervision.

After issuing a search warrant a home in the 1200 block of Brandom Street in September, Jackson police arrested two people after finding materials associated with making methamphetamine and also already manufactured methamphetamine.

They were assisting the Missouri Children's Division on a follow-up call when they made the arrests. Two children were living in the home, according to Lt. Rodney Barnes.

"That was pretty aggravating," he said. "It was an active lab, too."

Although Scott County Sheriff's Department detective Branden Caid considers all methamphetamine labs to be dangerous, the worst incidents in 2010 were those that caused serious injury. One man in Sikeston, Mo., he said, allegedly started himself on fire manufacturing the drug in his mobile home just outside the city on Pendleton Drive. The lab exploded, authorities determined based on witness testimony, and destroyed the man's trailer. Prescription pills, lithium batteries, paint thinner, aluminum foil with residue and other materials associated with the manufacturing of meth were found in the rubble of the man's mobile home, Caid said, when the state fire marshal was called in to investigate the N. . .15 fire.

Jerry Dye is charged with felony arson and manufacturing methamphetamine.

"His injuries were so bad that [the prosecutor] was holding off filing until he was a little healthier or in a condition to go to jail," Caid said.

Dye suffered first-, second- and third-degree burns to 27 percent of his body, according to a Scott County deputy's report of the incident.

"People don't understand the potential for explosion and the flammability of these things when they're messing with them," Glaser said. "Anytime you deal with a meth lab and the chemicals that are involved it's a dangerous situation."

ehevern@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

1510 Elm St., Jefferson City, MO

103 Mill St., Zalma, MO

Pendleton Drive, Sikeston, MO

Brandom Street, Jackson, MO