Sheriff: Inactive meth lab located

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PALATINE - A town man is in the Montgomery County Correctional Facility this morning after an inactive methamphetamine lab was found on his property, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Michael Paul Mussmacher, 33, of 1244 Stone Arabia Road was charged on Tuesday with two felonies - third-degree unlawful manufacturing of methamphetamine and second-degree criminal possession of precursors of methamphetamine. He was additionally charged with misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.

Deputies said they executed a search warrant with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration branch in Albany, the New York State Police and the New York State Division of Parole at Mussmacher's address and recovered evidence of an inactive methamphetamine lab.

Mussmacher was arraigned in Town Court in front of Justice Ronald Dygert and was sent to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $15,000 cash bail or $30,000 property bond.

The entire case has been turned over to District Attorney James "Jed" Conboy for prosecution.

Undersheriff Jeff Smith said Mussmacher has admitted to sheriff's deputies he cooked methamphetamine about two weeks ago.

Smith said the lab was located in a wooded section by his home and was likely not made for sale, but for personal use.

The investigation originated with the monitoring of ephedrine logs at retail locations where any ephedrine product is sold. Evidence was obtained showing Mussmacher had purchased ephedrine products from stores all over Montgomery County, a majority of Fulton County and parts of Herkimer County. Many times he was making purchases at different locations on the same day.

Smith said there are limits on how many grams of ephedrine products a person can purchase in a month, and Mussmacher was "way over" that amount.

"When someone is purchasing as much ephedrine product as he did, it's a red flag," Smith said.

He said that even with cold or sinus problems, the amount Mussmacher purchased was impossible for one person to need.

The deputies have to physically go and check the store logs throughout the county. Smith said other agencies do help in the other counties, but the deputies do check other areas as well.

Between 2002 and 2003 more than six methamphetamine laboratories were broken up in Fulton and Montgomery counties. The largest bust occurred in St. Johnsville and was one of the largest ever recorded by the state police at the time.

Smith said he believes the last time the Sheriff's Office had to breakup a methamphetamine laboratory was in 2004 or 2005.

"We had a bunch in '03 and '04, we had a rash of them," Smith said. "We made a lot of arrests."

Smith said the new state and federal laws have helped the problem greatly.

Methamphetamine is a stimulant drug that affects a person's central nervous system and causes an alert, high energy, low appetite state.

Over the counter drugs such as Sudafed, or anything containing ephedrine, is combined with substances like photographer batteries and anhydrous ammonia, a substance used in farming, to make the drug.