Stolen Vehicles Unearthed at Hilltop Drug Lab

Searching a junk-strewn crime scene Wednesday with shovels and backhoes, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies unearthed the stripped skeletons of six stolen trucks they found buried at the site of a chop shop and methamphetamine lab in the rocky hills east of Simi Valley.

They began towing away seven more cannibalized vehicles found outside the dilapidated pink hilltop ranch house that was the headquarters for the ranch off Black Canyon Road. The vehicles were all reported stolen from the San Fernando Valley, some as recently as September, deputies said.

Sheriff’s detectives also continued investigating the three unidentified men, who were arrested at the hilltop ranch Tuesday when SWAT officers leaped from helicopters and swept over the site at dawn.

More suspects may be arrested, and the work uncovering and cataloging the dozens of stolen parts and vehicle frames--many with their serial numbers filed off--will continue, Chief Deputy Robert Brooks said.

So far, the search has involved 100 county, state and federal law enforcement officers, said Brooks, who oversees the sheriff’s east county operations. He added, “The crime scene is virtually 100 acres up here.”

Deputies had received complaints over the past 10 years about residents of the ranch shooting at unwanted visitors. They also served numerous arrest warrants there for fugitives who fled to the secluded ranch to hide, Brooks said.

Although the laboratory gear in the methamphetamine lab looked well-used, the drug-cooking operation itself may have been relatively new, said narcotics Det. Curt Rothschiller.

Deputies and firefighters on Tuesday night began dismantling the lab, which they found inside a trailer draped with camouflage netting. They dusted for fingerprints and removed toxic and explosive raw chemicals they found there, which could have produced 10 pounds of methamphetamine worth up to $100,000 on the street, Brooks said.

Brooks marveled at the effort it must have taken for the drug chemists to drag the trailer, equipment and a Jacuzzi up nearly impassable fire roads to the site.

“They lived up here without running water or electricity,” Brooks said. “They had some sort of a pump that ran off a generator, but the only liquid I saw up here was beer.”