Pubdate: Fri, 08 Oct 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Ben Fenwick, Reuters 

NUMBER OF ILLEGAL DRUG LABS BOOMING IN THE SOUTHWEST

(Oklahoma City) -- The number of underground laboratories making illegal
methamphetamines in the Southwest is exploding, partly due to the
rediscovery of a simple but risky drug-making process used by Nazi
Germany, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

"This year we saw the big boom," said John Duncan, chief agent with
Oklahoma's Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

As of September, Duncan said Oklahoma authorities had raided 425 labs
- -- compared with 263 for all of 1998 -- and expect the total for 1999
to reach about 600. In the early 1990s, officials uncovered about 15
to 20 methamphetamine labs per year.

California remains first in the manufacture and sale of
methamphetamines, while Oklahoma and Missouri vie for second place,
Duncan said. Texas and Nevada round out the top five.

John Lunt, the resident agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration office in Fort Worth, said the ease of transporting
drugs through the Southwest's extensive highway system and the use of
the "Nazi method" of producing methamphetamines is feeding a growing
demand for the drug popularly known as speed, ice, glass, crystal or
crank.

The "Nazi method" was used during the World War II to manufacture
stimulants for German troops. Today, law enforcement officials said
the chemical process makes it easier for small-time criminals to set
up drug-making labs using common household products, such as
over-the-counter decongestants, lithium from camera batteries,
fertilizer and household cleaners.

But while the "Nazi method" is simple, the chemistry is also unstable
and dangerous, posing a threat to the lives of law officers, drug
makers and drug users, according to a recent DEA report.

"Approximately 80 percent of the labs that have exploded or have been
destroyed by fire are Nazi synthesis-type labs," the report said.

The drug produced is also purer and stronger, posing a danger to the
user as well, Duncan said.

"It has a bigger kick to it," Duncan said. "I don't know if there is
an exact correlation between the method and the death. ... It only
makes sense that the stronger meth will have stronger side-effects.
The stronger version may cause the increased meth toxicity in the
death reports."

For law enforcement, the danger begins with the raid. Officials
busting a meth lab are confronted with highly toxic phosphene gas,
similar to the poison gas used in war. Police need to go in armed with
breathing apparatus, chemical detectors and hazardous-waste-style
uniforms in addition to their normal weapons and bullet-proof vests.

Clean-up is expensive because the labs are deemed hazardous-waste
sites. The DEA estimated clean-up costs in Oklahoma are about $2,500
per lab, so the price tag for the year is likely to top $1 million for
the state budget.

But the greatest danger to police remains the violent nature of the
methamphetamine trade itself.

Last month, Oklahoma lost its first highway patrolman killed by
gunfire in 15 years. Rocky Eales, a 20-year veteran of the force, was
gunned down during a drug-lab bust in the rural eastern part of the
state.

"These people are extremely violent," Duncan said.

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