Burnham

Investigators arrested a Macclenny woman the afternoon of April 12 and charged her with procuring 50 boxes of the key ingredient for the addictive drug methamphetamine during the past year and a half.

Anna Burnham, 37, was taken into custody at a residence on River Hills Rd. north of Macclenny on the basis of an investigation that began with the arrest of her brother Billy Burham, 33, of Baxter back in March.

According to Investigator John Hardin, Ms. Burnham acquired either by herself or via others 127 grams of pseudoephedrine from area pharmacies dating back to November, 2011.

Police contend that’s enough to produce half that weight in methamphetamine if the entire amount was “cooked.”

It was the latest meth-related arrest by investigators working both for the Baker County sheriff’s department and a joint area task force made up of local and federal agents.

Investigator Hardin said a criminal complaint was prepared the same day charging Milisa Hays, 43, of Glen St. Mary with procuring the over-the-counter drug for Ms. Burnham.

The probe also implicated sisters Denia Byrd, 32, of Glen and Danielle McHenry, 24, of Macclenny as procurers for the accused.

Buying ingredients for meth manufacturing is itself a felony.

In a related case, Joseph Yokum, 32, of St. George, GA was arrested on April 11 for making pseudoephedrine purchases for Billy Burnham to be used in his meth cooking operation on Moccasin Circle in Baxter.

The operation was raided in March.

Yokom

Mr. Yokum told investigators he met Mr. Burnham while in jail in Charlton County, GA and on nine occasions between January and March made the purchases.

Several times Mr. Yokum said he would pay for the drug, marketed under the name Sudafed, and Mr. Burnham reimbursed him by working on his vehicle.

Police are tipped off on the identity of the illegal purchasers via an Internet watch list tagged the National Precursor Log Exchange [NPLEX] that records the time and date the product is bought from drug stores and other retail outlets.

Stores obtain names and other information of purchasers before entering data, and commonly the transactions are recorded on video cameras.