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In 1999, most of Cochise County was unaware of the growing methamphetamine problem and the increased prevalence of meth labs in Sierra Vista.
The drug had taken hold in places such as Phoenix and Tucson. While there was increased use in the area, few expected the epidemic on the horizon in Cochise County.
Home-based methamphetamine labs still were uncommon in Sierra Vista, and though officers had some experience in dealing with the labs, a single, unexpected meth lab bust in March 1999 woke law enforcement up.
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During the raid of a lab near Moson Road just outside of town, Cochise County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Dannels and Deputy Floyd Gregory inadvertently walked into a room filled with toxic fumes from "cooking" the meth. They had happened on the scene to make a drug-related arrest, but the existence of the lab was unknown.
What they came upon was a large-scale, home-based methamphetamine lab. The chemicals present, which had been neglected and started a blaze that quickly engulfed the home, brought both men to their knees, with Gregory ultimately needing medical treatment.
Both men have recovered and remain with the Sheriff's Department, working closely on several busts in the county since that time. Their experience led to an overhaul for the department's training procedures when it comes to patrol officers encountering a meth lab.
"Basically, we learned what to do and what not to do," Dannels said. "We were both pretty lucky that there weren't more significant injuries from the incident."
Today, the Sheriff's Department, like all local law enforcement agencies, cooperate with one another and federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency. Only highly specialized officers make their way into contaminate homes, and not without the back up and support hazardous materials teams and fire safety personnel.
The Border Alliance Group is the county's primary, multi-agency narcotics task force. During 2002, the group nabbed more than 300 ounces of methamphetamine with a value of more than $450,000. By comparison, less than $22,000 worth of cocaine and heroin combined were seized by the group during that same period.
They also shut down five methamphetamine labs in the county last year.
Most clandestine labs produce about 1 to 2 ounces of methamphetamine at a time. At a cost of about $100 per ounce, the street value of the drug is about $800 per ounce.
Despite a widespread effort by law enforcement and state legislators to crack down on "meth cooks," the products used to make methamphetamine are still easy to obtain.
The primary ingredient in producing methamphetamine is ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Found in a variety of over-the-counter sinus and allergy medications, the drug is treated and filtered in meth labs through a series of oftentimes makeshift chemistry equipment like soda bottles, coffee filters and bed sheets. Combined with a variety of reactants like ether, paint thinner or other household cleaning agents, the concoction is heated so the drug can be isolated and purified.
In the process, meth labs permeate an acrid, chemical smell that can often be detected at neighboring houses. It is regularly during the course of unrelated business that law enforcement "stumble" across methamphetamine production, said Mike Capasso, a local agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
"It's a difficult smell to describe, but definitely out of the ordinary for a normal neighborhood," Capasso said.
Crudely made in these labs, producing methamphetamine is just about as dangerous as taking the drug, Capasso said. The chemicals used to make it are highly unstable, producing deadly fumes and toxic by-products that are easily absorbed through the skin.
They also are extremely flammable. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, one out of every five home-based meth labs found in the United States is discovered because it is already engulfed in flames, filling the surrounding air with dangerous toxins and frequently killing or severely burning the drug producers inside.
"If we could take (methamphetamine users) along on some of these busts, to see all the nasty stuff that goes into making it, I don't think any would go back to using," Capasso said.
To shut down the clandestine labs, local and federal law enforcement must go to great lengths to protect neighboring houses, civilians and the responding officers from the dangerous chemicals inside.
The severity of the chemicals used in a drug lab require special training by law enforcement. The certification comes directly from a rigorous training course by the DEA and only a few local agents, Department of Public Safety personnel, Sierra Vista police officers and other local law enforcement have specialty training to deal with the meth labs.
Once a lab is located and secured, these officers enter the location, in secure hazardous-material suits with oxygen masks, to establish a preliminary assessment of the lab's dangers.
Classified as a toxic waste site, the contaminated labs are extremely costly to clean up.
Throughout Arizona, local federal agents contract with private businesses for chemical clean up and removal services. Smaller, home-based labs average about $1,300 to clean and dispose, while larger labs have cost the federal government as much as $100,000 to clean.
In total, federal drug enforcers spent about $24 million in 2001 in methamphetamine drug lab clean up.
Nationwide, the prevalence of clandestine methamphetamine labs has exploded over the last decade. In 1994, only 64 labs were raided in the United States. By 1998, the number had jumped to 1,627 labs.
Like many rural areas, Cochise County has not been immune to the rapid growth methamphetamine labs.
In Sierra Vista alone, at least one lab per year has been located and shut down. In every case, the clean up and quarantine effort has been a joint venture among local, state and federal law enforcement. Without the additional resources of each group, no individual law enforcement agency in the county could stop the labs on its own.
"These local labs produce a low-grade version of (methamphetamine), it's kind of brownish and while dangerous, it's nothing compared to the high potency stuff coming up from Mexico," said Sean Bronson, a drug enforcement officer with the Sierra Vista police.
While methamphetamine production remains a serious problem, both for fire danger and costs to bust and clean the labs, the vast majority of the drug circulating in Sierra Vista comes from Phoenix, Bronson said.
Not only does Phoenix have a vast number of clandestine meth labs, but it is also a hub for the more potent types from Mexico, Bronson said. The Mexican imports are created in "superlabs" just south of the border, Bronson said, continuously producing pounds of pure methamphetamine later smuggled into the United States.
As state and local authorities have begun to more closely regulate the household agents that comprise the drug, smuggling from across the border has skyrocketed.
The widespread availability of the drug from Phoenix meth labs and Mexican imports has made methamphetamine not only easy to obtain, but also cheap compared to other hard drugs.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Nate Searing can be reached at 458-9440 Ext. 180 or by e-mail at nate.searing@svherald.com.
nicole ray wrote on Jun 21, 2009 3:35 PM: