methamphetamine – Memphis Flyer

After a year-long investigation, law enforcement arrested seven Dyer County residents on federal drug trafficking charges this morning.

The charges stem from the defendants’ alleged participation in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute ice and methamphetamine.

The seven individuals apprehended during the early morning round-up include:

•Miracle Pounds, 36, of Dyer County (already in state custody)
•Brian Whitt, 37, of Dyer County
•Robert Troy Anderson, 48, of Dyer County
•Christopher Dean, 40, of Dyer County (already in state custody)
•Amy Junior, 42, of Dyer County
•Nicholas Patterson, 42, of Dyer County
•Jonathan Murphy, 37, of Dyer County (already in state custody)

During the year-long investigation, law enforcement seized illicit narcotics, U.S. currency, firearms, and drug paraphernalia.

“Over the last several years, we have seen an increase in the number of cases involving ice, a highly toxic and dangerous substance,” said U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton in a statement. “Ingestion of ice, which is methamphetamine with at least 80% purity, and crystal meth causes profound and almost immediate physical, mental and emotional consequences, while the production process can also be deadly. This case demonstrates our commitment to ridding West Tennessee of this menace.”

A task force composed of agents from the DEA, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service, and law enforcement officials with the Dyer County Sheriff’s Department, Dyersburg Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Highway Patrol made the arrests.

Illegal drug distribution appears to be a growing issue in Dyer County.

In January, 13 Dyer County residents were indicted on federal drug trafficking violations. The indictments stem from the selling, manufacturing, and distributing of powder cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana, as well as the unlawful possession of ammunition by convicted felons.

Meth for Kids!

Memphis has a lot of scary crime, and it’s not hard to put together a reasonably factual television news report that makes our blighted little bluff town sound like something out of Frank Miller’s Sin City. But for so many of our TV journalists, reporting the facts about bad guys and bloody murder just isn’t good enough.

In recent times, Memphis viewers have been treated to a variety of titillating untruths ranging from manufactured scandals about cross-dressing high school students to freakish erotic fantasies about gangs of hyperviolent lesbians. This week, Fox 13’s Jill Monier contributes to the growing catalog of unsubstantiated fear-mongering by passing along an urban myth about Strawberry Quik, an exciting, new kind of flavored methamphetamine intended for our precious children.

From Fox 13: “Strawberry, chocolate and cola, not soft drinks but a new version of meth aimed at children. The new meth is reportedly being found on the West Coast, but Memphis police are skeptical. … Around Halloween, a ‘strawberry meth’ e-mail started popping up in inboxes, warning parents that candy-flavored meth was being passed out in Arkansas schoolyards. … Some reports say drug-dealers are adding Strawberry Quik.”

Snopes.com, the internet’s ultimate resource for debunking urban myths, reports that while there are candy-colored, and perhaps scented, versions of the drug, there is no evidence that it’s being distributed to children. There are no actual reports indicating that flavored meth is being handed out in schoolyards or that children are being rushed to emergency rooms because they mistook the colored meth for candy. Snopes describes these claims as a product of the original e-mailer’s “imagination.” Thanks to Fox, they are now, also, the meat and potatoes of an actual news segment.

Monier’s report went on to note — factually, we suppose — that festive red and green meth would be available during the holiday season.