Three Piedmont, Mo., men charged with making meth

PIEDMONT, Mo. -- A traffic stop and a suspected shake-and-bake methamphetamine lab landed three Piedmont, Mo., men in jail last week.

Joshua Cothran, 17, was charged Thursday with a felony count of attempt to manufacture a controlled substance.

Initially held on warrants for probation violation, Dennis Hanks Jr., 33, and John Cothran Jr., 20, were charged Friday with a felony count of attempt to manufacture a controlled substance.

The men were arrested Wednesday night after Piedmont police officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Joshua Cothran, according to Lt. Cory Thompson's probable-cause affidavit. John Cothran and Hanks were passengers in the vehicle.

Thompson said a consent search was conducted on the vehicle and officers found what he described as a clear bottle containing "a white pelletized sludge [ammonia nitrate] on the bottom, clear liquid and gold-colored metallic strips," which he suspected of being a one-pot meth lab.

A search of the vehicle also revealed suspected ammonium nitrate pellets in the driver's seat where Joshua Cothran had been seated and in the rear passenger seat where his brother had been sitting, Thompson said.

Also in the vehicle were small pieces of batteries in the driver and passenger floorboards and a bottle of Liquid Fire in the left rear floorboard, according to the affidavit. Clear tubing also was found in the rear seat, it said.

Joshua Cothran is being held on $10,000 cash bond. John Cothran and Hanks are being held without bond after warrants were issued for probation violations.

Pertinent address:

Piedmont, Mo.