From staff reports
news@joplinglobe.com
PINEVILLE, Mo. — Four McDonald County men have been charged with four felonies apiece, including arson, after what authorities say was their attempt at a “shake and bake” method of methamphetamine manufacturing.
Joseph R. Martin, 31, of Lanagan, and Rocky A. Colvard, 36, David W. Flory, 37, and Cody Warren, 19, all of Anderson, were charged Monday in McDonald County Circuit Court in connection with a fire last week at a shed in Anderson.
According to a probable-cause affidavit filed by Kenen Martinez, a deputy sheriff and fire investigator with the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department, Martinez on Dec. 2 responded to a structure fire at a shed at 401 W. First St. in Anderson.
During his investigation, the affidavit states, Martinez determined that the fire stemmed from a container of meth ingredients that had been left in a garbage sack and placed against the shed.
Sheriff Robert Evenson on Monday could not be reached for comment about whether any of the four men owned the structure, specifically how the fire started and whether any of the four were hurt in the fire.
Martinez states in his affidavit that the four men employed a “shake and bake” method of producing meth at the shed. They were found in possession of Red Devil lye and Coleman camp fuel, and allegedly had cooked the meth to a finished stage, according to the complaints.
The “shake and bake” method has become popular because it requires a relatively small number of pills of the decongestant pseudoephedrine, and calls for making meth in small batches using a faster, cheaper and much simpler method with ingredients that can be carried in a knapsack and mixed on the run. For example, the pills can be crushed, combined with some common household chemicals and then shaken in a soda bottle, according to The Associated Press.
With the new formula, batches of meth are much smaller, but the activity is just as dangerous as the old system, which sometimes produces powerful explosions, touches off intense fires and releases drug ingredients that must be handled as toxic waste, according to the AP.
“If there is any oxygen at all in the bottle, it has a propensity to make a giant fireball,” Sgt. Jason Clark of the Missouri State Highway Patrol told the AP earlier this year.
