APD works with pharmacies to combat meth

police are in the middle of a major crackdown to find people who make meth. tonight only on four, we show you how cops are now working closely with local pharmacies. our kayla anderson has more on what they’ve uncovered. the albuquerque police department is the only agency statewide tracking pseudophedrine purchases. they started the tactic about four months ago. we're looking at people you can tell who are smurfing, or they're buying, we call it smurfing, they're buying the pseudo and they're selling it to people who are making meth with it." police use pharmacy logs-- to check names and purchases. "we have to log it. we have to ask for an id and keep trackf it." they're looking for people who are grossly abusing the system-- often shopping around from pharmacy to pharmacy. so far- they've got warrants for the arrests of about 20 people. they've arrested six people, these are pictures of three of them. "i'm sure there are probably, honestly, you know, a hundred or more violators. i'm sure. just based on the information we're getting rit now, that we're going to end up probably looking at eventually." police hope the arrests will lead them to meth- makers and meth labs so they can be dismantled. it could have a big impact in albuquerque-- especially since any amount of pseudophedrine makes an equal amount of meth. "which is why you'll go buy a box of pseudo for five bucks and you'll sell it for 30, 40. because they're looking at the long term meth sale amount, which is going to be a heck of a lot more than a few bucks a box." because checking the pharmacy logs is such a new process, there's no way to tell if this type of crime is on the increase

Channel: ClipSyndicate Video Length: 1m 46s Date Found: Fri, Feb 18 2011 9:58 PM Category: News Date Produced: Fri, Feb 18 2011 8:06 PM View Count: 0