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Lt. Jay Burch of the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday the arrests of Roy Allan Fountain II, 29, of Mount Olive, and Matthew Alexander Holland, 33, of Clinton, led authorities to the Duplin County, two hours away from Halifax County.
While there is activity associated with the meth trade around the county, there has yet to be any evidence of its production here, Burch said, adding, it may be a matter of time.
“We’re just lucky,” Burch said. “Once the right person gets addicted to it, they’re going to take the chance to make it. It’s going to explode.”
Burch hopes the county doesn’t begin to see meth production. “The agents (in counties with the problem) tell me they wish they had a crack problem.”
The meth trade tends to be different from the crack trade because addicts begin making it to support their habit. “All of the trends show people make it and trade it for the ingredients to make more meth. It’s not as much about the money as it is supporting the habit.”
That is the power of the drug, Burch said, a drug cheaper than crack with a more potent and longer lasting high. “They feel like they have nothing to lose,” he said of the addicts who make the meth. “In lock up they can’t have their meth and they get very sick. Crack is bad. It doesn’t come close to meth addiction. One of the people we arrested (for allegedly stealing the ammonia) lost his job. It got to the point the addiction was so bad he couldn’t get over it.”
The sheriff’s office already knows there are meth users in the area but no production, something the sheriff’s office has been bracing for the past five years. “We’re working with other agencies that have the problem, trying to educate our health workers.”
The sheriff’s office is also trying to educate the public, not only because of the health worries, but also associated dangers coming from its production.
Because the people making meth use propane tanks, like those found on outdoor grills, they trade them in for new ones. One of the substances used in making meth — anhydrous ammonia, which has been stolen from Halifax County — wears down the fittings of the tanks, corroding them with a dull, bluish hue and compromising the safety of the tanks.
The chemical is how Halifax County has been linked to the meth trade, particularly Halifax Fertilizer Company in Enfield which has been robbed numerous times the last three years. “They had Google maps and MapQuest maps to Halifax County Fertilizer,” Burch said of the people charged this week.
The owner of the company declined comment yesterday, citing the ongoing police investigation.
Thus far the five people charged all come from the Sampson-Duplin county areas where there is a thriving meth trade.
Fountain was charged with possessing precursors to manufacture methamphetamine, felony conspiracy, second-degree trespassing, larceny and possessing methamphetamine. Fountain was confined to the Halifax County Jail under a $70,000 secured bond.
Holland was charged with felony conspiracy. Holland was confined to the Halifax County Jail under a $ 70,000 secured bond.
Maj. Bruce Temple of the sheriff’s office said the arrests of Fountain and Holland were the result of Lt. Chuck Hasty and his uniformed squad’s efforts to locate offenders at Halifax Fertilizer. “Repeated thefts have lead to deputies taking preventive measures at the site,” Temple said in a news release.
Now the sheriff’s office continues to monitor activity around Halifax Fertilizer and another company in the county which sells the anhydrous ammonia.
Besides education and working with agencies which have the problem, Burch said, “There’s not a lot we can do. At the point we see labs popping up, it’s too late.”
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