Rampant up to 2008, after a few quieter years, illegal production of methamphetamine seems to be increasing in Dearborn County.

“It started falling off in 2006, when we had a fair number of labs,” said Dearborn County Detective Shane McHenry. Seven meth labs were found in the county that year, he said.

“In the last six years, it's just been one or two here or there,” said McHenry, a member of the Dearborn Special Crimes Unit.

State and federal laws in 2005 and 2006 may have effected the difference, with restrictions on pseudoephedrine products and other meth precursors.

But over the past year, police have encountered more methamphetamine labs in Dearborn County, said McHenry. And meth production apparently did not diminish in surrounding counties, including Jefferson, Franklin and Ripley.