Suspect Linked to Drug Lab Arrested

A Newport Beach man is being held on $250,000 bail for his alleged involvement with Orange County’s largest illegal drug lab.

Alvin Hellerud, 47, was arrested Friday outside his rented home on Balboa Peninsula after allegedly buying 25 pounds of ephedrine, which is used to make methamphetamine, from an undercover Costa Mesa police officer.

Federal narcotics agents, with help from local officers, had issued a warrant for Hellerud’s arrest, based on evidence they found when they busted a methamphetamine lab in Placentia Aug. 22.

“Meth labs are taking off all over the state,” according to Allan Roth, special agent supervisor for the Orange regional office of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. “We try to target the labs and the people manufacturing it.”

Commonly referred to as “speed,” methamphetamine is sold on the street for about $10,000 a pound, Roth said.

The Placentia lab, located in a commercial building in the 700 block of Dunn Way, was capable of manufacturing 50 pounds of methamphetamine a week with 20 different cooking stations, Roth said.

During the August raid, narcotics agents arrested Lester Friedman, a 62-year-old former chemistry professor, and seized 10 pounds of methamphetamine as well as thousands of dollars worth of “ecstasy,” a hallucinogen.

Friedman, who has been in Orange County Jail since Aug. 23, is being held on $1-million bail. He faces charges of conspiracy, manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of illegal drugs, including cocaine. He is scheduled to appear in North County Municipal Court Wednesday.

Roth said that there are probably many others involved with the Placentia lab, but that no other arrest warrants have been issued. With Friedman and Hellerud, though, agents believe they have struck close to the core of the ring.