Meth Lab Crackdown Dealt a Setback

Before Sept. 11, state and federal agents thought they were turning the corner in the battle against one of the biggest blights in California’s agricultural heartland: the massive, illegal production of methamphetamine.

A federal Drug Enforcement Administration program to restrict the supply of the chemical agents used in making the deadly drug was showing impressive results. A team of specialists from local drug units, the California Highway Patrol, DEA and FBI averaged one bust a week of the clandestine “super labs” that had made the Central Valley the national center for the production of meth, known on the streets as “crank.”

But officials here say a post-September manpower drain threatens to undo their efforts, as agents have been transferred to the anti-terrorism cause. The effect on the valley drug program reflects the general national strain on local law enforcement produced by the anti-terror campaign.

Although few suggest cutting back in the fight against terrorism, some law enforcement experts contend that the battle is beginning to take a toll.

In the FBI alone, spokesman Thomas Hinojosa said, about 7,000 people are now involved in the counter-terrorism effort--about one-fourth of the bureau’s work force. Many of these agents and support staff had previously been assigned to state programs, including the federally funded, $2.5-million Central Valley High-Intensity Drug Trafficking project.

“The bad guys always know where your resources are devoted,” said Tom Umberg, a former Los Angeles federal prosecutor who served for three years in the White House drug policy office during the Clinton administration. “We are at a critical juncture now with respect to meth production in California. It would be a shame if we took a step backward at this point.”

After the September attacks, said Bill Ruzzamenti, director of the Fresno-based Central Valley project, six FBI agents assigned to his team were transferred to the national terror probe, two federal drug agents were shifted to federal air marshal duty and a Border Patrol agent was given an anti-terrorism job.

“We are the Colombia of methamphetamine manufacturing,” a frustrated Ruzzamenti said. “There are hundreds of federal agents in Colombia. Now we [in the Central Valley] have only four.”

Nine California members of Congress signed a Jan. 7 letter to DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall asking for help.

“Because the FBI is understandably forced to reassign its valley agents to anti-terrorism efforts,” wrote the California delegation members, including Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, “we strongly believe the DEA should respond by assigning additional agents to the Central Valley.”

Raids Continue on Drug Suspects

None of this means that the methamphetamine enforcement program has screeched to a halt.

Earlier this month, the DEA, U.S. Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police broke up a major smuggling ring for pseudoephedrine, the main chemical precursor used to make methamphetamine. They arrested 100 people, including suspects in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire alleged to be part of a major smuggling network.

Last week, Central Valley investigators raided a methamphetamine super-lab on the outskirts of Merced. After observing three men working with “drug-cooking” materials in a shed behind a small farmhouse, the agents moved in when the men got into two cars and headed into the city, where they were arrested.

Afterward, Sheriff’s Department drug agents and CHP officers assigned to the high-intensity drug unit raided the farmhouse, where they found vats of chemicals, including 10 pounds of red phosphorus used in producing meth, authorities said.

While the men, all Mexican citizens, were engaged in the potentially explosive process of extracting pure methamphetamine from a large supply of illegally imported pseudoephedrine, four small children watched television inside the three-room farmhouse. The children were taken to a local hospital by county child protection services staff to be tested for possible methamphetamine contamination.

Under the mattress in the bedroom, investigators said, they found three weapons, including an illegal semiautomatic rifle.

Fresno County Sheriff’s Sgt. Rick Hill estimated that the lab was capable of producing 40 pounds of meth, with a street value of more than $300,000.

The DEA estimates that California is the source of 80% to 90% of the nation’s methamphetamine. Originally, production was the domain of biker groups, notably the California Hells Angels, which at one time operated what amounted to a meth cartel.

In the 1980s, however, the operation shifted to Mexican networks that easily blended into the Central Valley’s farm labor population and Latino communities in the Inland Empire. The nexus of major highways in both places facilitated distribution to markets across the United States.

Until recently, the state and federal agents believed that they were on the verge of driving meth production out of the valley. Now they are not so sure.

“While I understand the new focus on terrorism,” said Rep. Cal Dooley (D-Fresno), one of congressmen concerned by the staff cutbacks, “the DEA should step up to the plate to make sure our gains in the meth fight aren’t erased.”

At stake is a panoply of social and environmental ills.

According to Ruzzamenti, every pound of methamphetamine produces 10 pounds of toxic waste, most of which is dumped in ecologically sensitive areas. A private contractor hired to clean up meth-related hazardous dump sites responded to more than 500 calls last year.

“We found one dump site on the banks of the California Aqueduct,” Hill said. “That’s water that goes to L.A.”

John Maddox, who runs a big dairy near Merced and farms 7,000 acres of cotton, corn, sugar beets and alfalfa, had a scare a few days ago when he found two canisters of deadly hydrogen chloride gas, presumably dumped by drug makers, in a ditch next to one of his fields.

“Used to be the most we’d find was a burned-out car,” he said with a sigh.

There also has been a heavy cost to Central Valley cities, where inexpensive, readily available meth has become the drug of choice and principal cause of crime among young people.

Destructive World of Meth Addiction

Cheryl West, 34, said she was already troubled when she moved to Fresno from Washington state six years ago. She had tried methamphetamine, but did not become an addict until she came to Fresno.

After a year, she was using an “eight ball” a day--about $100 worth of meth. To support her habit, West, a skilled computer operator, counterfeited bank checks and California driver’s licenses, which she would sometimes exchange for drugs.

Not sleeping for days at a time, West would find herself in all-night stores populated by other addicts there to shoplift goods or plan other criminal activities to raise money.

After serving time in county jail for fraud, she now has a job as a legal aide.

In the destructive world of meth addiction, said CHP drug agent Erik Skidmore, West is one of the few users with a chance to make it out.

“I’ve made 5,000 drug arrests in 22 years,” he said. “I can only think of three or four who were able to turn their lives around.”

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‘We are the Colombia of methamphetamine manufacturing.’