Highland, Ill.-A state police air operations team patrolled from the sky while a methamphetamine response squad chased down and arrested a fleeing suspect who jumped into a nearby lake after trying to tap anhydrous ammonia tanks at a farm supply store here. The whole drama was photographed from the plane and made available on the Internet. Zone 6 Meth Response Commander Joe Beliveau told Green Markets that these teams have been conducting surveillance on a number of anhydrous ammonia locations as part of the meth team’s ongoing efforts to proactively combat the manufacture of meth and drug content thefts. “It’s not uncommon for air operations to be working like this with a meth team or other narcotics units,” Beliveau commented. In this case they were keeping watch at R&T Ammonia in Highland when a pickup truck was observed dropping off an individual near R&T early in the evening. Beliveau said the individual walked approximately a quarter of a mile to R&T, where he attempted to open the valves on several tanks. When he found out that he’d been spotted he ran from the site and jumped into a nearby lake, where police pulled him out and arrested him. Now housed in the Madison County Jail on an $80,000 bond, the suspect faces charges of attempting to possess anhydrous ammonia for producing meth and unlawful tampering with ammonia equipment.
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