2 S.D. Men Held in Riverside County Bust of Speed Lab

Two San Diego men were arrested Tuesday morning in Riverside County in one of the largest raids on a clandestine drug manufacturing laboratory in Southern California, authorities said.

Narcotics agents found about 150 pounds of chemicals used to make an analog of methamphetamine, and 20 pounds of the completed drug during the raid at a home here, said Ron d’Ulisse, special agent for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. La Quinta is 10 miles east of Palm Springs.

The seized drug was worth about $1.5 million wholesale, with a street sale price of five times that amount, D’Ulisse said.

“This is one of the five largest methamphetamine laboratory busts ever by DEA agents in Southern California,” he said.

Robert Michael Sanders, 44, and Eric Greer, 49, both of San Diego, were arrested on suspicion of illegal drug manufacturing and were taken to a federal prison in Los Angeles, D’Ulisse said.

The seized methamphetamine analog, known as methylmethamphetamine, is a drug that is similar, but not identical, to methamphetamine, he said. The chemicals used to make methylmethamphetamine do not appear on the registry of chemicals governed by a state law that went into effect April 1, which imposes strict reporting requirements on those purchasing the chemicals.

But the chemicals used for such methamphetamine analogs are still illegal under a federal statute, D’Ulisse said.