Gasconade County Republican

Pseudoephedrine purchases recently by two county residents within 23 minutes of each other resulted in warrants for their arrest and execution of a search warrant late Thursday into early Friday of their mobile home just outside of Owensville.

Three Gasconade County Sheriff’s deputies and two members of the Lake Area Narcotics Enforcement Group found items related to the production of methamphetamine inside the residence at 803 South Hickory. Items seized included empty bottles containing a powdery residue,

pieces of plastic tubing, liquid acid and empty packages of cold compression packs. The powdery residue was field tested on the scene and tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine, according to a report from Sheriff Randy Esphorst.

“Additionally,” said Esphorst, “a plastic bottle containing the components of a ‘one pot/shake and bake’ clandestine meth lab and a ‘gas generator’ were located in the field behind the residence.”

Esphorst said deputies reviewed the Nplex System — a computerized tracking database for pseudoephedrine purchases — and two subjects at that residence had purchases that would be consistent with the quantity needed to make a batch of meth.

Based on their investigation, Associate

Circuit Judge John B. Berkemeyer issued class B felony warrants alleging the distribution/delivery/manufacturer/produce or attempt to, or possess with intent

to distribution/delivery/manufacturer/produce a controlled substance against all three occupants of the mobile home. Bond was set at $15,000 each for Christian Owen Neville, 29, Dedra C. Henson, 19, and LeRoy M. Seymour Jr., 34.

As of Tuesday, Neville and Henson were being held in the Osage County Jail in Linn. Seymour, who was not at home at the time the search warrant was executed, remained at large. The GCSD hosts a free Drug Awareness Seminar at 7 p.m. Feb. 28, at St. John’s UCC on Bem Church Road.