Meth-Lab Raiders Hit Carlsbad Firm
U.S. drug agents early Friday morning seized business records of a Carlsbad chemical supply company and its satellite offices in Orange and Riverside counties and arrested four people on charges of conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine.
The arrests and seizures, conducted by a 90-member task force, capped a two-year investigation of Quantum Labs and its two satellite offices, Entropy Labs in San Clemente and Riverside.
“This is one of the largest retail chemical supply houses seized in the country,” said Ronald J. D’Ulisse, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent. “About 18,000 pounds of ephedrine, the main chemical used in producing methamphetamine, or its street name ‘speed,’ were sold in San Diego County last year. Only 8,000 pounds were sold for medical use in the entire United States.”
Major Supplier
According to D’Ulisse, Quantum Labs was named as the major supplier of illegal drug manufacturers. The company was economically dependent on those sales, according to IRS records, D’Ulisse said.
“Chemical companies that specialize in supplying (illegal) drug manufacturers are the cause of San Diego being referred to as the meth capital of the United States,” said Charles Hill, special agent in charge of the DEA in San Diego. “Today marks the begining of the end of this dubious reputation.”
DEA officials identified those charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine as Ruta Kahn, 33, co-owner of the San Clemente and Riverside subsidiaries; Tina Watchel, 28, a former employee of Quantum; Victoria Humphrey, 35, also a former employee; and Robert Poppleton, 35, an accountant.
Jerome Kahn, 48, the owner of Quantum and Entropy labs, was still being sought Friday afternoon.
Poppleton was said by D’Ulisse to be the director of another Quantum affiliate, R.A.P. Enterprises in Salt Lake City, where he was arrested Friday morning.
The drug task force, made up of DEA and Internal Revenue Service officials, entered Quantum Labs at the 6300 block of Yarrow Drive in Carlsbad about 8 a.m. Once inside, D’Ulisse said, the agents found five sizes of methamphetamine labs, or kits, the largest of which had a 72-liter container for mixing the chemicals, as well as a heating manual.
“We’re hoping to see a significant reduction in the number of meth labs seized in San Diego County,” D’Ulisse said. “If we can reduce the number . . . by one-third, I would say that we’ve been pretty successful.”
The San Diego DEA seized 186 labs last year, 35% of all labs seized in the country.
Although D’Ulisse said Friday’s raid was a major breakthrough in cracking down on chemical companies that specialize in supplying illegal drug manufacturers, he addressed a major problem that keeps methamphetamine manufacturers in business.
“There’s no federal law at this time that prohibits the sale and transfer of chemicals,” D’Ulisse said. However, state and city laws require that such sales be reported to law enforcement agents.
In 1986, San Diego passed an ordinance requiring people to report to the Sheriff’s Department any sale or gift of chemicals that can be used in making illegal drugs.
In 1987, Gov. George Deukmejian signed a law requiring sellers to keep records of all transactions of chemicals used in the manufacture of methamphetamines: ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, norpsuedoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine, ether and hydriodic acid.
Just last month, D’Ulisse said, the DEA seized 3,300 pounds of ephedrine that agents believed were to be sold to clandestine chemists.
