DTF busts couple for meth
Published 12:03 am Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A man and wife are the latest arrested in a rash of recent meth busts in Covington County.
Drug Task Force agents apprehended Michael Garsee, 34, and Jane Simmons Garsee, 28, on Monday night.
Agents conducted a “knock and talk” at the couple’s B&B Road residence in Opp, after reports the couple was cooking methamphetamine.
When agents arrived at the scene, Michael Garsee consented to a search of his residence, DTF Commander Mark Odom said.
Agents located a meth lab with more than 200 grams of meth oil.
Additionally, three children all under 6, lived at the residence, he said.
Odom said meth has never completely left the county, but the one-pot method makes the process of manufacturing the substance much quicker and easier, which could be perceived as meth re-emerging within the county.
“Cooks, like the Garsees, are emboldened by the simplicity of this method,” he said. “They think that they can cook meth and get away with it. I hope these people are beginning to realize that we will not stand by and let them destroy our county, themselves and their children.”
District Attorney Walt Merrell echoed Odom’s statements.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We have no tolerance for meth cooks in Covington County,” he said. “People try to tell me that drug crimes are victimless. That is absolutely not true. Three children in that home are victims of the Garsees’ selfishness. The Garsees risked their children’s health and safety to cook meth.
“Those two people cared more about drugs than their own children, who had no choice about the environment they were growing up in,” he said. “Anyone who sacrifices their children for the sake of getting high needs to be ready to go to prison because they aren’t going to get away with it – not on my watch.”
The couple has been charged with manufacturing a controlled substance first degree and three counts of chemical endangerment of a child and are each being held on a $1.52 million bond.