Raid on Makeshift Lab Yields Drugs but No Suspects

Police early Saturday raided a methamphetamine lab set up in a neighborhood garage and seized nine pounds of the drug.

But police could not find the lab operators who left behind a trash can containing steaming liquid.

Anaheim police with a search warrant raided the garage, in the 200 block of East Ellsworth Street, just after midnight and confiscated nine pounds of methamphetamine and 90 pounds of ephedrine, which is used to produce methamphetamine, according to Sgt. Ronald Lovejoy. The methamphetamine has a street value of $63,000, Lovejoy said.

Police said they had received a call reporting “suspicious activity” at the home. The caller reported seeing four people working in a garage with “items he felt were being used to manufacture drugs,” Lovejoy said.

When officers arrived, the lab operators had apparently fled. Officers saw three large stainless-steel vats on propane burners. Two of the vats contained a liquid substance, while a plastic trash can contained a liquid that was still steaming, Lovejoy said.

Several plastic bags containing empty ephedrine bottles were piled outside the garage, he said.