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Source: Press-Register - al.com

Date: 13-Jul-2008

Author: Brendan Kirby

Records of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine purchases already have begun to help authorities put away people who provide methamphetamine cooks with the vital raw ingredients they need to churn out the drug, according to prosecutors and a review of court records.

Joe Bettner, Mobile County's methamphetamine reduction coordinator, has been building a database of information stores must maintain showing sales of over-the-counter medication with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. He said he met last month with Baldwin County officials to make plans to share the database and hopes to establish ties with officials in neighboring Florida and Mississippi, as well.

Baldwin County Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack Jr. said his deputies have started gathering information from area outlets and will add the data to the Mobile County system.

"We hope to have this up and running in the very short term," he said.

The pharmacy logs have helped identify so-called "pill shoppers," who travel from outlet to outlet buying Sudafed and other products, which they then resell for a hefty profit to meth cooks. Bettner, 57, said about 200 people have exceeded legal purchases of pseudoephedrine products by as many as 200 grams since the beginning of the year.

"You've got to have one heckuva cold," he said.

An affidavit filed in federal court by a Mobile County sheriff's investigator earlier this year, for example, states that detectives researched pharmacy logs after an Orange Beach police officer saw Lance Diehl purchase two boxes of pseudoephedrine pills at two different stores.

Logs from area businesses showed that Timmy Lee Thornton had purchased 217.3 grams of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine pills between Jan. 4 and May 26. That is more than seven times the allowable amount.

According to the affidavit, Thornton admitted that he and Diehl bought pseudoephedrine pills for a methamphetamine cook, who pays $40 a box. Thornton pleaded not guilty this month to conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Diehl has been indicted but has not yet made a court appearance.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George May said he does not believe his office has ever prosecuted someone based solely on pharmacy logs. But he said the records can provide a compelling piece of evidence and lead to more information about a drug ring.

"It's an excellent starting point," he said. "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

In another case, Mobile County sheriff's deputies in June 2007 searched a hotel room where a pair of suspects were staying and found a large amount of pseudoephedrine pills and items used to manufacture meth, according to court records.

The raid came a month after police found 5,547 pseudoephedrine pills during a traffic stop of the suspects, Johnnie Duane Johns and Jessica Nichol Lane.

During the hotel room search, according to court records, co-defendant, Cynthia Sowell tried to run out of the room. Sowell - who was in her third trimester of pregnancy at the time - later admitted that she had gone there to trade pseudoephedrine to Johns for cash so she could buy OxyContin.

Another man named in the federal indictment, Adam Ray Echols, showed up during the search with about 4,800 milligrams of pseudoephedrine pills.

While investigators thus far have used the pharmacy logs to supplement ongoing investigators, Bettner said detectives have started to use them to launch probes. For the first time, the county has a database that links records from the roughly 500 pharmacies and other retailers licensed to sell pseudoephedrine products.

Sheriff's deputies are tracking down people whose names appear often on those lists.

Cases that go to federal court have the benefit of laws that take a tough stance against pill-shopping, officials said.

May said advisory sentencing guidelines treat pseudoephedrine pills five times more severely than the finished methamphetamine. Pseudoephedrine pills totaling 10 grams count the same as 50 grams of meth.