Lt. Anson Amis, narcotics investigator with the Lamar County Sheriff’s Dept., has received a prestigious invitation to a software conference with top law enforcement officers from across the country hosted by NPLEx Services.
Lt. Anson Amis (left) with Sheriff Scott Cass, who says Anson ‘has done a great job utilizing NPLEx’ in the fight against the manufacture, distribution and use of meth in Lamar County. (eParisExtra photo by Josh Allen)
NPLEx (National Precursor Log Exchange) is software used by law enforcement and pharmacies that provides an electronic logging system in real-time to track sales of over-the-counter cold and allergy medications containing pseudoephedrine, which is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Amis, known as a ‘super user’ of the NPLEx product, will join the fifty law enforcement attendees from the twenty nine states that use the system for a networking conference to discuss different methods of use for the product, as well as help inform the technology provider and product developer, Appriss, of ways to make the notification system better and more effective.
Lt. Amis is the only ‘super user’ from the state of Texas invited to the conference. This recognition is due to Anson’s effective and thorough use of the system to make cases against individuals ‘cooking’ meth.
“A ‘super user’ is someone that effectively uses our product, and Anson has taken it upon himself to be very proactive in using NPLEx to help keep meth off the street,” Jim Acquisto, head of NPLEx for Appriss, said. “He’s one of the guys we consider very in depth.”
“Every year we hold a conference, inviting the top users and administrators of NPLEx,” Acquisto said. “These guys can get together and really learn from each other, as well as teach us what we can do to better our product — what searches they’d like to see, different notifications and things like that.”
Appriss, which specializes in safety and alert notification systems for communities and their governments in almost all fifty states, developed NPLEx to add to their array of products designed to keep communities safe and informed.
Appriss was founded in 1994 in Louisville (Jefferson County), Kentucky, where they developed and released the nation’s first automated victim information and notification system one year after the murder of 21-year-old Mary Byron by her former boyfriend in 1993.
Known as VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday), the system sends alerts to violent crime or abuse victims, notifying them in real-time when their attacker has been released from jail, when they go to court and when a restraining order has been issued.
NPLEx works similarly, but instead notifies law enforcement when products containing pseudoephedrine are purchased, the time in which they are purchased, the amount purchased and who has purchased them. It allows officers to create ‘watch lists’ of frequent buyers, which could likely point to the manufacture of the very volatile and dangerous drug.
This photo shows several of the ingredients used to ‘cook’ methamphetamine; NPLEx is designed to monitor who is buying these over-the-counter medications that contain pseudoephedrine. (Sheriff’s Dept. photo)
The funding for NPLEx is a three-way partnership between the technology provider, Appriss, the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators (NADDI), and the pharmaceutical companies that make the medications containing pseudoephedrine, who pay the bills and allow states and agencies to have the product free of charge.
Before technology like this, it was much more difficult and time consuming to obtain information on who’s frequently buying products used in meth manufacturing, which can be ‘cooked’ in many different ways — including a common method known as ‘shake-n-bake’, which uses several chemical elements and any kind of plastic bottle, making usable meth in about 30 minutes.
This method gets its name from the process of adding different chemicals (pseudoephedrine, lithium battery strips, water, and several other elements) into a plastic bottle and then literally shaking the contents to create a chemical reaction that essentially leads to the product methamphetamine, although there are several other ingredients and steps to the process before complete.
The method doesn’t require a lab and the products used can all be obtained at pharmacies and public stores. However, not only is the drug very dangerous and highly illegal, it’s also very volatile and one of these ‘bottle labs’ could easily explode, requiring specialized cleanup of the chemicals that the county must then pay for.
“The last cleanup cost of a small lab like this cost us around $1200,” Lt. Amis said.
Since pseudoephedrine is the only ingredient that cannot be substituted in order to ‘cook’ meth, this partnership that NPLEx has made possible between law enforcement and pharmacies monitoring the purchase of over-the-counter cold medication containing it has been extremely useful and successful in lowering meth’s manufacture and distribution.
Using NPLEx, Lt. Amis was able to monitor, locate and apprehend subjects who were using the above elements to ‘cook’ meth with the ‘shake-n-bake’ method in their vehicle. Not only is the drug dangerous, but very volatile and the process can require special clean-up that costs the county thousands of dollars. (Sheriff’s Dept. photo)
Twenty nine states mandate that their pharmacies are monitored, and when medications are purchased containing pseudoephedrine, it is required that a driver’s license is scanned. That information is sent to NPLEx and can immediately be seen by officers using the system and alerts can even be sent to their mobile device or email.
NPLEx can even stop the sale of the product if someone is attempting to purchase more than the legal limit and immediately alert authorities.
“NPLEx is another tool that we use in our daily investigative work, but it is an effective tool in the fight against drugs,” Lamar County Sheriff Scott Cass said. “The sheriff’s office is committed in this fight and to make our communities safer.”
“Amis has done a great job utilizing this tool and making the cases that take these subjects off the street and stop the drugs before they are made, used or sold,” he said. “This recognition for utilizing this tool is well deserved. His hard work and professionalism is indicative of this office’s standard.”
With the help of the sheriff’s department, police department, NPLEx and Lt. Amis’ continuous work with this informative notification system over the past two years, meth manufacture and distribution has been lessened in Lamar County and many arrests and cases have been made, allowing the county attorney’s office to successfully prosecute these individuals and take them off our streets.
By Josh Allen, eParisExtra