Narcotics Seizures Skyrocket in 1993 : Crime: Methamphetamine confiscations rise from 3 pounds to 132 pounds. Quantities of heroin and cocaine also surge.

Seizures of methamphetamine and heroin by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department hit record levels in 1993, and the amount of cocaine increased tenfold compared with 1992.

Authorities said the dramatic jump in confiscated methamphetamine is a clear sign of the drug’s soaring popularity in the county. Much of the increase from the 3 pounds, 10 ounces seized in 1992 to 132 pounds, 9 ounces by mid-December was bolstered by raids on four major methamphetamine labs in Ventura County.

One of the labs, located in the Santa Rosa Valley, was described as the largest operation reported in the county. Investigators seized six flasks with more than 90 pounds of methamphetamine--worth an estimated $4 million on the street--and large quantities of chemicals used in the production process.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Arnie Aviles, who oversees narcotics detectives working in western Ventura County, said patrol deputies have also been making more methamphetamine-related arrests.

“We’re just seeing more if it on the streets. That’s the bottom line,” he said.

As a sign of the drug’s proliferation, investigators point to several smaller labs raided in semirural areas. One manufacturer, Robert Buster Castleberry, was sentenced in May to six years and eight months in state prison on two counts of producing the drug in back-yard labs in Oak View.

“These guys we’re arresting, they’re pretty much uneducated people,” Aviles said. “They’re just following recipes just like baking a cake.”

Ralph Lochridge, a federal Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman, said Ventura County’s huge increase in methamphetamine seizures underscores what drug experts are seeing throughout California: the kind of people using the drug has changed.

“Meth used to be primarily a blue-collar, truck driver, working-class, construction-worker type of drug,” he said. “Now it seems to cut across all socioeconomic strata.”

Lochridge believes that some former cocaine users are turning to methamphetamine for its similar stimulant effects.

“One of the agents told me if it continues at the same staggering rate, meth could soon surpass cocaine as the drug of choice in Ventura County,” he said.

While authorities say the leap in methamphetamine confiscations signals an increase in use, they find less significance in the quantities of heroin and cocaine seized. They caution that the figures can be skewed year-to-year by a few large busts or changes in enforcement tactics.

This year, deputies seized 48 ounces of heroin, up from 11 ounces in 1992 and the highest level in seven years.

Aviles said the 1993 figure reflects a series of related raids on heroin dealers and wholesalers, not an overall increase in usage.

“These people were moving large amounts,” he said of the half a dozen dealers arrested in the west county. “For a guy to have an ounce, you can bet he’s not a user. He is a dealer and probably makes deals to other dealers.”

As for cocaine, Aviles has seen no signs that the amount being used, sold or shipped through Ventura County has changed dramatically. A handful of larger raids in the east county caused a leap from about 56 pounds seized in 1992 to nearly 537 pounds seized in 1993, according to statistics through Dec. 17 of this year.

Over the past seven years, the amount seized has varied widely from 2,125 pounds in 1989 to 36 pounds in 1988.

“We’re not seeing signs that it’s totally out of control, that there is a glut out there,” he said.

Even so, detectives have noted changes in the way dealers operate. Fewer dealers nowadays are working out of a fixed location, he said.

“These guys are just working off pagers,” Aviles said. “They do that to protect their homes, their stash of drugs--so they don’t lose a lot if they do get stopped.”

In Oxnard, cocaine remains the most heavily used illicit drug, although methamphetamine is on the rise, said Sgt. Mike Matlock, who supervises the Oxnard Police Department’s narcotics unit.

Statistics for drug seizures in the city are unavailable, but the number of arrests has remained steady over the past three years.

By the second week in December, Oxnard officers had made 2,041 drug arrests, close to the 2,133 arrests in 1992 and up slightly from 1,974 in 1991. During the past three years, roughly one in six arrests has been drug-related.

Matlock’s unit mostly works street cases and occasionally collaborates with federal agents on cases involving mid- and higher-level dealers. Neighborhood complaints of drug activity have poured in at an average of 60 per month in 1993. Of those, about 10% are followed up, based on resources available and the value of the information, he said.

“There’s just so many hours in a day,” he said.