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14 July 2000 - The San Diego North County Times
Agents, strike force target 'mom and pop' meth labs

By Jo Moreland

SAN DIEGO - A surge in small "stove-top" methamphetamine laboratories in the county has forced law enforcement officers to change strategies, officials said Thursday.

They said that the super labs which can manufacture up to 100 pounds of meth have shifted north of San Diego County and that agents in this region are now staking out illegal "cookers" working in toxic kitchens.

"Now we're seeing a lot of labs that are less conspicuous and might be right next door," said county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, a county Methamphetamine Strike Force official.

Super labs are usually easy to spot because they're very smelly, often located in remote areas and marked by large flasks and 50-gallon chemical drums, said Special Agent Vince Rice of the San Diego office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"The 'mom and pop' labs put out 4 and 5 ounces at a time," said Rice. "The thing is, they cook every couple of days. And they're a lot more difficult to identify. They can do it in a hotel room or an apartment."

The stove-top meth cooks buy their ingredients in small amounts, which makes them more difficult to track, and they substitute ingredients, Rice said. He said the current price of meth in the county is about $450 an ounce. Last year DEA and county Narcotics Task Force agents seized 64 operable meth labs in the county, said Undersheriff Jack Drown, co-chair of the Meth Strike Task Force. Agents dismantled 44 labs in 1998.

"None of those (1999) labs was a super lab, capable of producing 10 pounds or more," Drown said. "There is less meth on the streets today than in 1996, but there's more meth today than last year or the year before that."

He said 577.1 kilograms of meth were seized last year in San Diego and Imperial counties, compared to 619.7 kilograms in 1996. The county and city of San Diego placed controls last year on the chemicals needed to make the drug, and that has changed the region's manufacturing situation, Drown said.

"I think it's commonly believed that the wholesale trafficking of meth (in this county) is done by Mexican drug groups," said Drown.

The San Diego County Hazardous Materials team decontaminated a record 46 chemical dumpsites in 1999–11/2 times more than the 1998 clean-ups, according to Strike Force statistics.

Even though today's labs are smaller, they're equally – if not more dangerous – than the larger labs and they're often places with unsuspecting neighbors and children, said Mike Handman, the supervising environmental health specialist for the county's Department of Environmental Health.

Strike force officials said the warning signs of a meth environment include:

	Strong chemical odors.
	Chemical containers such as cans of Freon, Coleman fuel, alcohol or antifreeze.
	Extra trash, unusual quantities of cold medicines, plastic tubing or kitty litter.
	Glassware or cookware, especially hot plates, chemical flasks and propane cylinders.
	Short-term foot traffic or car traffic, especially at night.
	Blacked-out windows.

The Strike Force operates an anonymous hotline at (877) No-2-Meth to report meth-related crime or to seek help.

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