After bust, Sheriff ’s Office details new meth-making tactic
Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
BENTON COUNTY - Retailers can only sell limited amounts of over-the-counter medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a measure aimed at restricting methamphetamine makers'access to necessary ingredients. But some have found a way around those laws.
According to a news release from Doug Gay, public information deputy for the Benton County Sheriff's Office, meth manufacturers are asking their customers to buy the restricted medicines - such as Contac Cold and Sinus, Dyhist and Sudafed - allowing the producers access to more ingredients for future batches.
Gay announced the new tactic following a Friday night raid of a meth lab at 15789 Cow Face Road in southeastern Benton County. Members of the BCSO SWAT team and the Rogers Police Department Special Tactics and Response Team surrounded the property, which they believed was equipped with video- and sound-surveillance equipment.
As the SWAT team advanced on the front door, three subjects ran out the back, right into the waiting STAR team. Officers also found one more subject inside the house, along with a "large cache of weapons that were at the ready at windows in upstairs areas overlooking the property," Gay said.
All four suspects were arrested without incident, Gay said.
Because of possible dangerous gases at the site, Safety Environmental Co. of Little Rock sent crews to remove the toxic waste.
Brenda Lee Louge, the property owner; Robert Pearl Mullen; Stephanie Dawn McCarty; and Christopher Gary McCarty were arrested and were being held at the Benton County Jail awaiting bond hearings.
All four suspects were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance (methamphetamine ), a class Y felony; possession of drug paraphernalia, a class C felony; and possession of pseudoephedrine, a class D felony.
Louge and Mullen were also charged with possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine ), a class C felony; simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, a class Y felony; possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, a class C felony; and possession of a controlled substance (marijuana ), a class A misdemeanor.
Mullen had an additional charge of felon in possession of a firearm.
This was the ninth meth lab investigated in 2008 by the Sheriff's Office. There were only eight labs investigated in 2007, Gay said.
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