25 Arrested in Crackdown on Meth Makers

In what was said to be the largest crackdown yet on methamphetamine cooks in California, authorities Monday began arresting people from San Diego to Stanislaus County, wrapping up an Orange-based sting operation in which agents sold $1.5 million worth of chemicals used to make the drug.

By day’s end, about 200 law enforcement officials, who fanned out at dawn across the state, had arrested 25 people. Authorities said they plan to take another 25 suspects into custody this week.

During the six-month operation, police said, they closed more than a dozen meth labs, seizing 30 guns and 260 pounds of speed with a street value of $12 million.

Authorities said the far-flung arrests highlight the spreading problem of methamphetamine, which has replaced cocaine as an illicit drug of choice in California.

The operation has helped stem the frenzied and hazardous production of speed in makeshift labs, which is increasingly placing children, neighborhoods and motel tenants at risk, authorities said.

During a news conference at the Anaheim Police Department on Monday, police chiefs from several Orange County cities stood before a display of guns, meth and ingredients used to cook the drug.

From Sacramento, Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren issued a statement saying that the bust “will make a difference in Orange County and the surrounding area. We have placed one more brick, but have a long wall to build to keep these dangerous drugs away.”

John D. Miles, special agent in charge of the state bureau of narcotic enforcement in Orange County, said it was the first time that authorities had posed as suppliers of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine--two ingredients used in the manufacture of methamphetamine--to snare the operators of the illegal labs.

Dubbed “Buyer Beware,” the operation employed agents from 25 law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties who staffed a storefront operation in an industrial complex in Orange.

The store, which operated around the clock, was furnished with a desk, a money counter and stockpiles of over-the-counter cold medicine--containing pseudoephedrine, which is chemically similar to ephedrine--which agents peddled for about $1,000 a pound.

The drugs are key ingredients in the process used to make methamphetamine. Meth cooks used to rely on powdered ephedrine to make the powerful drug, known on the streets as “crank” or “speed.”

But as federal officials have moved to tighten the regulation of ephedrine sales, cooks have turned increasingly to pseudoephedrine, found in over-the-counter cold medicines and increasingly sold at unlikely retail outlets such as gas stations, antique stores and head shops.

After turning over the ingredients to the drug cooks, police followed them to their makeshift labs.

Seventeen people were arrested during the operation, but many others were either not arrested or were released on their own recognizance so as not to jeopardize the sting, Hudson said.

All 25 suspects taken into custody Monday were Latinos, authorities said, noting that the arrests signaled a change since the early days of the drug’s popularity, when biker gangs controlled its manufacture and distribution.

Now the big-batch meth cooks in California are linked to organized Mexican drug families, law enforcement sources said.

Carl Armbrust, who heads the Orange County district attorney’s narcotics unit, said authorities believe that meth dealers were “operating with cocaine money out of Mexico.”

He related an incident during the operation when a man walked into the storefront with a box that he said contained $41,000 cash. Agents counted the cash, realized the box contained $47,000, and returned the extra $6,000. After handing over ephedrine, authorities followed the man to Fresno, where he was arrested, Armbrust said.

Officials said most of the suspects will be charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, manufacturing and possession with the intent to manufacture.