Methamphetamine Labs Reviving After Chemical Cutback

After three months at a relatively low ebb, clandestine drug manufacturing is again on the rise in San Diego County, narcotics agents say.

Investigators uncovered 10 illegal methamphetamine labs in August--twice the number busted in each of the three previous months, Special Agent Ron D’Ulisse of the Drug Enforcement Administration said Monday.

The level of illegal drug manufacture is still lower than in the months before April 1, when a state law went into effect imposing strict reporting requirements on the use of the chemicals needed in the “cooking” of methamphetamine. Until then, agents were turning up an average of 20 illegal labs per month, earning San Diego County notoriety as the “methamphetamine capital of the world.”

Nonetheless, the revival of illicit drug manufacturing has law enforcement authorities worried that the drug world already has cooked up ways of circumventing the new law, D’Ulisse said.

New Drug Created

In one bust last month, agents found that the drug makers were employing a chemical not on the new registry of controlled chemicals to create a drug similar--but not identical--to methamphetamine, according to D’Ulisse. The new drug may not even be illegal under state law, he said, though as an “analog” to methamphetamine it is illegal under federal statutes.

Another concern is that the speed merchants may have found sources outside California for obtaining the so-called “precursor chemicals” used in methamphetamine production, D’Ulisse said. Of the states closest to California, he noted, only Arizona and Nevada have similar laws controlling purchase of the chemicals.

Drug-control experts contend that virtually unlimited access to precursor chemicals drew a new breed of unsophisticated criminals into the methamphetamine business. It was these entrepreneurs, cooking drugs in their suburban garages and city homes, who were largely responsible for making the explosions, fires and other dangers of drug manufacture virtually an everyday part of life in San Diego.

Out-of-State Importing Feared

Should the new law’s limits on the availability of precursors become ineffective, the county could be in for another round of speed-related problems, D’Ulisse said.

“Naturally, our fear is that someone will find a great source of precursor out of state, import it into the state, sell it in the state, and then we’ll have amateur hour all over again,” he said.

Two-thirds of all the illicit methamphetamine labs uncovered in the United States last year were found in California, and one-quarter were in San Diego County, according to federal statistics. Agents estimate that only one in four labs is ever discovered by law enforcement.