Farmers in Richland County, N.D., have found two possible meth labs on their land.
The sites, one northeast of Christine and the other southeast of Kindred, contained lithium batteries, propane bottles converted to carry anhydrous ammonia and other tools used to cook meth. The evidence strongly suggests meth was cooked on the sites, though the materials could have been dumped there after the drug was made elsewhere, Richland County Sheriff Kim Murphy said.
No arrests have been made, and authorities have few leads to connect anyone to the sites, Murphy said.
The recent discoveries, if indeed cooking sites, doubled the number of meth labs seized this year in North Dakota. As of Thursday, 169 labs had been found in the state since Jan. 1, compared to 275 seizures in all of 2002.
