FULLERTON : Police Find Drug Lab; Couple Held

Police arrested an Anaheim couple Wednesday after discovering a garage that had been converted into a methamphetamine lab containing enough chemicals to blow up a city block.

Kim Douglas, 31, and her husband, Garry Douglas, 34, were arrested on charges of possession of methamphetamines for sale and charges of manufacturing the substance. Each is being held in Orange County Jail on $150,000 bail.

Police said they seized large amounts of processing equipment and chemicals, including ether, which police officials said could have ignited and touched off an explosion that would have destroyed much of the block.

Police were tipped off about the lab’s presence when an anonymous caller informed Fullerton’s narcotics bureau Tuesday night that there were “suspicious chemicals” in a garage in the 200 block of Lincoln Avenue, Fullerton Sgt. Mike Vice, supervisor of the city’s narcotics bureau, said in a statement. Detective Tom Basham went to the garage and spotted chemicals and equipment used to produce methamphetamines, Vice said. Authorities learned from the owner of the property that it had been rented to Kim Douglas. Police then obtained a warrant to search the garage and the Douglases’ Anaheim home. When the warrant was served at the home at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, police found about $4,000 in cash and a dozen handguns and rifles, along with 1 1/2 pounds of methamphetamines with a street value of about $15,000, Vice said. The couple was arrested there, he said.

Kim Douglas was already awaiting trial in connection with a July arrest on charges of possession of methamphetamines for sale, police said. Authorities from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement plan to request that her bail be increased.

The couple’s two children, ages 12 and 13, were placed in the care of a grandmother, police said.