3 Drug-Lab Deaths Prompt Police Raid on Chemical Firm

Los Angeles police, San Diego County sheriff’s investigators and federal drug agents seized documents Wednesday from a Vista company that allegedly sold chemicals used in a Van Nuys drug lab where three people died after inhaling toxic fumes.

Boxes of sales receipts and other records were taken from the San Diego County company, which authorities declined to identify, but there were no arrests, said Jim Welch, a Los Angeles narcotics detective.

Among the chemicals in the building were large quantities of red phosphorus, hydriodic acid and ephedrine, which are used to make methamphetamine, a drug known as “crank” or “speed” that is similar to cocaine.

“It’s a new building, a real nice place. But, if you removed everything from that business that could be used to manufacture methamphetamines, there would be nothing left,” Welch said.

Receipts Led to Search

Police decided to search the chemical business after finding chemical sales receipts in the clandestine methamphetamine lab, housed in a duplex in the 6400 block of Densmore Avenue in Van Nuys, where the three were overcome Sunday by poisonous fumes.

Christopher Richard Smith, 27, and Lisa Ann Cross, 20, died at the Densmore Avenue address, where they resided. Smith’s brother, David Michael Smith, 20, of Vista, died while being driven to a hospital by a friend, Russell Blackwood, 22, also of Vista.

Blackwood is being held in Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail on three counts of second-degree murder and one count each of manufacturing methamphetamines and conspiracy to manufacture the drug.

Charges Filed

Prosecutors filed the charges under a state law that permits murder charges if a death occurs because of an inherently dangerous crime. The law was used in the prosecution of Cathy Evelyn Smith in the drug-overdose death of comedian John Belushi.

Investigators believe the fumes were generated when the hot mixture of red phosphorus, ephedrine and hydriodic acid was siphoned through a plastic garden hose used as a substitute for glass tubing. The surgical phase of autopsies on the three failed to reveal a cause of death, but toxicology tests on blood and tissue samples from the three have not been analyzed, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said.

At the time the bodies were discovered, police said they hoped prosecutors would be able to file murder charges against the company that sold the chemicals used in the lab. But Welch said Thursday that such a possibility is “very remote.”

It is not illegal to possess or sell chemicals used to make methamphetamine and other drugs, such as PCP and synthetic heroin, unless it can be proven that the seller knew beforehand that the chemicals would be used to make illegal drugs.

About the only way to prove prior knowledge is through the use of electronic surveillance, informants or undercover officers posing as buyers or sellers, Welch said. The business searched Wednesday had not been investigated previously, he said.

State law lists 15 chemicals used in the manufacture of drugs that cannot legally be sold unless the dealer notifies the state Department of Justice. But Robert Schirn, head of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s narcotics division, said drug chemists often develop substitutes for the restricted chemicals before the list can be expanded.

Ephedrine, which was being used to make methamphetamine in the Van Nuys lab, was added to the list by the state Legislature earlier this year, but the expanded law does not go into effect until Jan. 1.

Detective Lyle Smith of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department hazardous-chemicals team, said there is evidence that chemists who manufacture methamphetamine are already developing a substitute for ephedrine.

“It’s been a race between the ingenuity of the chemists and our ability to restrict the sale of some chemicals,” Schirn said. “That’s what’s happened in this case.”

Schirn said his office is drafting legislation that would require chemical dealers to obtain the identification of individuals purchasing chemicals. He said the proposed law would also require that dealers “make some kind of effort” to inquire how certain chemicals will be used.

John Lovell, Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s lobbyist in Sacramento, said he plans to seek out a legislator to sponsor the proposal once it reaches his desk.

“I think it’s an excellent idea, and it’s something I’m really looking forward to,” Lovell said.

Methamphetamine was once considered the “poor man’s cocaine” because it was less expensive than cocaine, Smith said. But the drug now sells for about $125 a gram, comparable or even slightly higher than cocaine, he said.

Until recently, most methamphetamine labs were found in Northern California and San Diego, authorities said, whereas the manufacture of PCP and synthetic heroin was more common in Los Angeles.

About a third of the illegal drug labs raided by the Sheriff’s Department this year were set up to manufacture methamphetamine, Smith said. But, of the last 10 labs raided by his department, eight were set up to make “crank.”