Despite police crackdowns and some tough new laws, methamphetamine production continues to be a persistent problem for both the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the Carrollton Police Department.

Within the past two weeks, members of the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement unit made two arrests involving the production of the drug.

Most recently, Joseph Daniel Phillips, 34, of Carrollton, was arrested and charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and possession of ephedrine with intent to manufacture on Sept. 22.

During the past year, Investigator Telisha Gibson said she received several tips from informants indicating that Phillips was involved in producing meth.

“When we were following up on our investigation, we were able to stop Phillips for a traffic violation,” Gibson said.

Police stopped Phillips on Highway 16 for failure to maintain his lane. After Phillips reportedly consented to a search of both his person and his vehicle, Gibson said she and other members of the ACE unit identified a hypodermic needle, lithium batteries, an instant cold pack, a box of an ephedrine-based pharmaceutical and starting fluid.

“We noticed that there was a lithium battery and part of the cold pack missing from their packages, so we questioned Phillips further,” Gibson said. “After a brief interview, he admitted to manufacturing methamphetamine at his home and he consented to a search of the property.”

When investigators arrived at the house at 2137 S. Highway 16, Gibson said she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until she entered Phillips’ bedroom.

“When we opened the door, I immediately smelled a strong chemical odor,” she said. “We located five one-pot method meth labs dropped out his window and a burn pile where he had gotten rid of others.”

According to Phillips’ police interviews, he had purchased ephedrine that morning at one pharmacy and then gone to a different store for the starting fluid.

Investigators typically call this “smurfing” when a meth manufacturer jumps from one pharmacy to another to purchase ingredients for production. The previous week, on Sept. 18, police arrested three Alabama residents after investigators followed them to four pharmacies where they purchased ephedrine-based drugs.

Donald Wayne Bailey, 41, George William Hewitt Jr., 46, and William Howard Crowe, 48, were all arrested and charged with possession of ephedrine with intent to manufacture.

The three men, whom authorities say admitted to purchasing the pharmaceuticals with an intent to produce meth, told Gibson in an interview that they crossed the state line because it is easier to buy large quantities of ephedrine in Georgia than in Alabama.

One of the major reasons meth manufacturers leave their home area, according to Capt. Shane Taylor of the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, is that local law enforcement agencies usually have ongoing investigations into their activities.

Another reason, however, may be related to new computer networks that connect pharmacy records and police records from different Alabama counties.

“One thing that has helped us crack down on meth is a system that most of our local pharmacies have joined,” said Agent Charles Tidwell with the Walker County, Ala., Drug Task Force. “It puts all of their ephedrine records online and traces who has bought the drug and how much they purchased.”

Tidwell also explained that he, along with many other Alabama law enforcement agencies, use an Internet program called Leads on Labs that links different county departments together.

“If someone from our area goes somewhere else, we are able to send a text or an e-mail alert to the law enforcement agencies there,” Tidwell said. “When we get an alert, we automatically start watching the pharmacy logs for that person’s name.”

In addition to the new online networking systems, Tidwell said that he and the rest of the drug task force have started to build interstate relationships with agencies in Mississippi.

“We have meth-related investigations about two to three times a week,” Gibson said. “If we could get a program that linked pharmacies together, I think it would make meth production much more difficult.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is currently involved in discussions about launching such a system, according to Task Force Agent Reagen Clayton. For now, however, Carroll County and Carrollton law enforcement agencies must continue to resort to checking extensive pharmacy logs on paper.