Police accused two Salt Lake City copper plant employees of stealing $200,000 of materials and building a hidden methamphetamine lab at their workplace. The men face felony charges for theft and preparing to manufacture drugs in a clandestine lab.
The two employees worked together to load metal products onto a company truck. They allegedly stole $130,662 worth of brass clamping rings and two spools of copper wire, weighing more than a ton and worth $71,000. The men allegedly stripped insulation casing off of the wire and sold the remaining copper to metal recyclers for $2,200. Investigators found the brass rings in a Utah recycling center.
The men allegedly also built a hidden laboratory at the factory. Concealed in a large pipe, the lab contained a number of supplies for manufacturing methamphetamines.
Authorities are pursuing theft and clandestine laboratory charges against the men.
Conspiracy charges may also apply whenever two or more people work together to commit a crime. Generally, a conspiracy is an agreement between people to do something unlawful. The law usually considers the agreement itself as a completely separate crime when the conspirators have taken some step to follow through with the plan. Prosecutors often charge defendants with both a crime and a conspiracy to commit crime.
This case is a good example of a situation in which conspiracy charges could arise. For example, the government could pursue the men for stealing and running a clandestine laboratory. But the government could also prosecute them for agreeing to work together to commit those crimes.
It is unclear whether authorities have actually filed conspiracy charges in this case.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune, “2 Kennecott employees accused of stealing, making meth at work,” Erin Alberty, Aug. 20, 2012