A jury in Wilbarger County, Texas, sentenced a white supremacist to life in prison for possession of anhydrous ammonia with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine. 

The jury handed down their sentence for John David Meier, an alleged associate of the Texas Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Circle racist prison gangs, on April 30, 2008. 

Meier was eligible for a life sentence after the charge was amplified to a first-degree felony due to two prior felony convictions, including methamphetamine possession. 

Meier was one of four co-defendants charged with stealing a tank holding over 4,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia from a local agricultural company.  The theft went unnoticed until a man happened to see a truck driving along the highway hauling the huge tank.  The man noted the license plate number of the truck and alerted an employee of the company.  The license plate number led authorities to a pickup truck driven by Meier and one of the co-defendants.

Authorities believe that the men were planning to use the anhydrous ammonia to manufacture methamphetamine in the Fort Worth area.

The Aryan Circle and Texas Aryan Brotherhood are prison gangs that follow a white supremacist ideology, but are also heavily involved in the methamphetamine trade.  In 2004, ten Aryan Circle members were convicted on drug and racketeering charges related to a West Texas methamphetamine ring, with four convicted of operating a criminal enterprise involving methamphetamine that prosecutors said controlled as much as 80% of the trade in the illegal drug in the Odessa area between 2000 and 2004.  Nineteen other defendants previously pleaded guilty to various charges in the same case.