Three arrested on meth-related charges

By Jedd Rosche

Published April 29, 2008

After a meth sale investigation, the Columbia Police Department arrested three suspects Friday.

Police apprehended Terry S. Johnston after the investigators suspected he was delivering meth to “a subject” on Wagon Trail Road, according to a CPD news release.

Police then went to a nearby residence where Johnston had been seen before a drug transaction. Subsequently, CPD apprehended two suspects with outstanding warrants at that location.

Gloria K. Berhorst had one outstanding warrant for first-degree burglary and Timothy M. Klein had one outstanding misdemeanor warrant for trespassing, according to the release.

Police also found Klein was in possession of less than one gram of meth.

It is unknown whether Johnston made the meth or if it was imported from outside Boone County.

Members of the CPD Narcotics Unit could not be reached for comment.

The state’s relationship to meth has changed over the years. In recent years, one of the main meth-related problems in Missouri was in-state meth labs.

Missouri has had more meth lab seizures than all other U.S. states for more than a decade, according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service.

Maj. Tom Reddin of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department said that recently Boone County has seen fewer labs but more meth being imported to the region from southwestern U.S. and Mexico.

He said a law requiring people who want to purchase some types of cold medicines to register with their pharmacy has helped curb the creation of meth in the county.

Of course, he said, that can’t stop all meth labs from appearing in Boone County.

“All the precursors are so readily available,” Reddin said. “If somebody wants to make it, they can make it.”