Raid on Meth Lab Prompts Evacuation

A booby-trapped methamphetamine lab designed to kill anyone who stumbled onto it forced the evacuation Friday morning of seven homes in a neighborhood bordering Walnut Elementary School.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 45-year-old Bradley Raville at his parents’ Rudman Drive home on suspicion of operating the lab, maintaining the booby-trap device and attempted murder of a peace officer. He was booked into Ventura County Jail and held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Sheriff’s officials said Raville has had trouble with the law before, arrested in 1996 in connection with the shooting death of Juan Elijio Carranza of Lancaster.

Carranza, 35, was gunned down in a tow truck owned by Raville. Raville maintained that he fired the fatal shot in self-defense and no formal charges were filed, sheriff’s officials said. That case is still open but considered inactive unless new information develops, officials said.

Acting on an anonymous tip Thursday, law enforcement officers from several agencies descended on the Newbury Park home about 11 p.m. They discovered a small lab set up in a shed in the backyard next to a trailer where Raville lived.

Because of the explosive nature of the chemicals involved in such operations, investigators launched an evacuation shortly after midnight.

“There was 12 gallons worth of chemicals in that shed,” Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Ed Tumbleson said. “If they would have ignited, it could have blown the house off its foundation.”

Neighbors said Raville lived behind his parents’ home for at least a year and kept mostly to himself.

Neighbors said there were a lot of people coming and going from the house at times. And occasionally, they said, they could detect a strong chemical odor, although they had no idea someone was cooking up drugs.

That changed early Friday morning with a loud knock on the door.

Deputies “said there’s a methamphetamine lab next door and that it could blow,” said one evacuee, barred from home for several hours. “It was very scary. We’ve never had any problems out here until this happened.”

As hazardous waste crews funneled chemicals into storage drums late Friday morning, neighbors returned to the well-kept middle-class neighborhood, keeping an eye on the low-slung stucco house now ringed by yellow police tape.

Neighbor Elizabeth Smith wandered up from a few blocks away, wanting to see what all the commotion was about. She had been told by her daughter that a drug lab had been uncovered in the neighborhood.

“It’s just unbelievable,” she said. “But that’s how they get away with it. They move into quiet neighborhoods, put out feelers and next thing you know they are in business.”

Sheriff’s officials said they suspect that the methamphetamine lab had been operating for weeks if not months, cranking out drugs for sale. The operation was set up in a bathroom-sized closet in the storage shed, kept locked and out of sight.

Raville’s parents apparently knew nothing of the lab and are not suspects in the case, Tumbleson said.

As investigators were entering the shed, they found an explosive device rigged to go off if someone entered uninvited. Tumbleson said the device was designed to destroy evidence. But it also served a far more sinister purpose.

“I believe the blast would have been enough to kill the officers at the door,” Tumbleson said. “That’s what it was designed to do.”

A hazardous materials crew worked well into the morning Friday, stuffed into bulky white suits to handle bottles and jugs fished out of the shed. They even found a book titled “Chemistry Made Simple,” tossing it into a growing collection of contraband.

Tumbleson said that because the house is near an elementary school, it’s possible that additional charges could be filed because of the danger the drug lab posed to schoolchildren.

In any event, he said it’s fortunate that something more serious didn’t take place.

“These people doing this are not rocket scientists,” Tumbleson said. “They have a very basic understanding of chemistry, if any at all. And they are handling very volatile chemicals in a small area. That could be a disastrous combination.”

At Walnut Elementary School, there was a definite feeling that a potential disaster had been averted.

The last day of school was at noon Thursday, well before the bust. But teachers who arrived Friday to clean out their rooms were greeted by a lot of police activity.

“It’s a little close to home,” said first-grade teacher Doris Warren, who can see the house from her classroom window. “It’s definitely a surprise. This is a very quiet neighborhood and this is the kind of thing you don’t expect to happen here.”