HARRISBURG - A Venango County man has been arrested on charges related to the manufacture of methamphetamine, as the result of an investigation by the Northwestern Pennsylvania Methamphetamine Task Force and the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation.

Attorney General Tom Corbett identified the defendant as Shawn E. Adams, 28, 109 Washington Ave., Oil City.

Corbett said that Adams was arrested on May 11th, following a search of his Oil City home.  The search came after agents from the Attorney General's Office and officers from the Titusville Police Department obtained information that Adams was allegedly offering to exchange methamphetamine for pseudoephedrine and other meth-related ingredients.

"Meth labs pose a serious public safety threat because of the potentially toxic chemicals used to create the drug and the abuse of meth fuels an assortment of other crimes," Corbett said. "This arrest is part of an ongoing cooperative effort with police departments and prosecutors to locate the illegal labs and cut off the supply of meth across the entire northwestern corner of our state." 

Corbett said that during the course of the search at Adam's home, agents seized quantities of pseudoephedrine and other chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Agents from the Attorney General's Office were assisted in the operation by officers from the Franklin, Oil City and Sugar Creek police departments, along with the Pennsylvania State Police. 

Corbett noted that laws requiring the tracking of pseudoephedrine and other materials needed to manufacture methamphetamine have made it more difficult for meth cooks to conceal their operations - requiring them to conspire with more people and go through much greater efforts to obtain the ingredients necessary to produce meth.

"Every extra step they must take and every additional person involved in the conspiracy dramatically increases the risk of exposure," Corbett said. "The Northwestern Pennsylvania Methamphetamine Task Force has been extremely successful over the past several years - working aggressively to track drug ingredients and cash back to the 'cooks' who are at the center of this dangerous and illegal business."

Corbett said that Adams is charged with one count of criminal conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and one count of manufacture of methamphetamine, both felonies which are each punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. 

Adams is also charged with one count each of possession of meth precursors and chemicals and criminal use of a communications facility, both felonies which are each punishable by up to seven years in prison and $15,000 fines. 

Adams was preliminarily arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Douglas B. Gerwick.  He was jailed without bail on a detailer from the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole related to his current parole on charges of manufacturing meth.

A preliminary hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

Adams will be prosecuted in Venango County by District Attorney Marie T. Veon's Office.

(A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.)

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