Local police use unique, new way to fight meth

by Kelli Cheatham (kcheatham@wsbt.com)

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Police in a battle for funding to fight meth

(WSBT file photo)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Feb 8, 2009 at 10:23 PM EST

Story Updated: Feb 11, 2009 at 12:53 AM EST

BREMEN — When Indiana State Police Trooper Jeff Wampler found a Wal-Mart bag full of used meth needles in an area in Kosciusko County where he could picture his son playing, he knew he wanted to play an active role in fighting meth in our area.

Wampler is part of the first Meth Investigation Team in Northern Indiana.
The three-person team was formed at the beginning of the year.

When it comes to making the highly addictive drug, Indiana State Police admit a lot of the people who are cooking meth are intelligent. Also, meth labs are getting smaller and easier to hide.

"What used to take a lot of materials and a lot of space to cook methamphetamine can now be done in the space of a 2 liter bottle," explained Meth Investigation Team member Trooper Keith Bikowski.

Bikowski said the meth problem in northern Indiana is only getting worse. For example, in the four-county Bremen District, police from several agencies have uncovered two meth labs every day over the past week.

"We our out actively working with other agencies as much as we can and looking for people who are involved with meth at all different levels," Bikowski said.

Before the first of the year, only one trooper led area meth investigations and the clandestine team clean-up. Now, the new Meth Investigation Team is able to be much more pro-active. But they're battling a drug made from every day household items.

"There's a couple reasons it's so hard to fight," explained Bikowski. "One is because all these things [used to manufacture meth]are able to be purchased in one day, for relatively low cost by you or me or anybody."

Trooper Bikowski said meth cannot be made without ephedrine and pseudo ephedrine. Even though federal laws are supposed to keep track of who buys those over-the-counter medications, police say that legislation isn't working.

"They can't track people buying amounts of ephedrine from different pharmacies," Bikowski told WSBT.

To give you an idea of how bad the problem is here, state police released the number of actual meth labs police busted last year. Noble County led the state with 80 labs. Police found 65 meth labs in Elkhart County. There were 41 in Kosciusko County, and 12 in St. Joseph County.

Even as WSBT interviewed Bikowski Sunday afternoon, police served a search warrant at another meth lab in the 300 block of Concord in Elkhart. Police say two people were arrested for manufacturing meth at that residence.

If you know of anyone involved in the production or consumption of meth, or if you suspect a meth lab in your neighborhood, you can call the Meth Tip Line at 1-800-453-4756.

The Meth Investigation Team is also working with pharmacies and hardware stores — and making their presence known to meth buyers, makers and users in our area.

"That's a lot more man power and time spent on this problem than ever before," said Bikowski.

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