Meth, Shattered Lives, Part 1C

OPERATIONS THROW POLICE INTO NEW ROLE

For the past week, methamphetamine has turned the streets of Oklahoma City
into a moonscape, leaving it up to four explorers in space-like garb to
descend into the craters of addiction.

It's now 2 a.m. on a Thursday in June and Lt. Tom Terhune and the Oklahoma
City Police Department's special operations team are outlined by the orange
glow of a streetlight a few blocks north of the state capitol.

Inside a car stopped by police is a potentially deadly meth lab.

That makes five labs in six days, including the day Terhune's meth
moonwalkers took down two labs.

But the cost has been high: $15,000 in cleanup expenses and overtime and $2
million in jail and prison costs if everyone arrested serves mandatory
minimum sentences.

"This operation costs the public a lot more than it realizes," Terhune said.

For more than a year, the Oklahoma City Police Department's special
operations team has had more work than it can handle. In 2000, the
department seized 153 labs and is ahead of that record pace with 91 as of
July 1.

Terhune worked two labs on Easter. It seems that the only thing that is
sacred to a meth cook is the humidity.

"They don't like to cook when the humidity is high," Terhune said. "It
seems to affect the quality of the product."

A defensive battle

Terhune has been working narcotics for 20 years and has been involved in
about 400 meth lab seizures. He's seen drug fads come and go, but nothing's
put him on the defensive like meth.

"We should be focusing on the mid- and upper-level narcotics dealers, but
we've had to refocus on meth," he said. "We've had search warrants we can't
execute because we've had to work a meth lab.

"Meth doesn't have the volume we saw with the crack cocaine trend, but it's
more manpower intensive."

A routine traffic stop at the corner of NE 36th and Santa Fe about 1 a.m.
on a Friday was typical of how time-consuming and expensive a routine meth
bust can be.

Nearing the end of his shift, Officer Rob Stratton was working radar when
he pulled over two men in a blue Cadillac Seville traveling 51 mph in a 40
mph zone.

When he walked up to the car, Stratton encountered a driver who was
unusually nervous, carried no identification and lied about not carrying a
weapon - a search revealed a knife in his pocket.

After getting permission to search the car, Stratton was almost overcome by
a chemical odor when he removed the lid from a large blue Tupperware
container on the back seat.

It was a "box lab" and contained many of the ingredients and equipment
necessary to produce an ounce or two of meth. Judging from their equipment
and the condition of the "meth oil" found in a gallon container, they
weren't big-time operators.

Even so, the police investigation and cleanup operation involving 10 law
enforcement personnel was treated with the respect of a major crime scene
and lasted until almost sunup.

Calling out the troops

Terhune's cell phone rang about 1:30 a.m. and his team was at the scene
about 2 a.m. Terhune, Sgt. Vanessa Price and Detective Mark McCaleb slipped
on fire-retardant fatigues, silver Farnex chemically-resistant suits and
boots, self-contained breathing apparatus and two pairs of Nitrile gloves.

Investigator Tina Aragon's assignment was to videotape their findings and
enter information into her laptop computer.

No matter how big or small, each meth lab is an explosion waiting to
happen, so Price and McCaleb carefully separated the assortment of jars
found in a container with the words "under construc" hand-printed on the lid.

The good news was that the night was cool, around 60 degrees. On hot summer
days, the air-tight suits make her feel like she's stewing in her own
juices, Price said.

"What you have to remember is that almost every chemical used in the
cooking process has a skull and crossbones warning on the container,"
Terhune said. "There's always the risk of an explosion or the release of
deadly fumes."

At 3:55 a.m., the Cadillac - the driver said it belonged to his grandfather
- - was hauled off by a tow truck. Shortly thereafter, the driver and his
passenger, who had been placed in the back seat of Stratton's police
cruiser, were on their way to county jail.

It would be another hour before two men from a hazardous waste removal
company in Guthrie transferred the bag of hazardous wastes gathered up by
Terhune's team to an enclosed trailer and drove north on Santa Fe.

By then, the four team members were leaning against Terhune's SUV and
contemplating whether there was any point in going back to sleep.

With Terhune scheduled to be in the office in three hours, Sgt. Vanessa
Price due in court at 9 a.m. and Aragon headed for an early morning meeting
at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the group opted for more hot
coffee.

Understaffed, overwhelmed

Terhune is worried about the toll the meth war is taking on his team.

There isn't enough time in the day, and there aren't enough trained
personnel to keep up with the onslaught of lab seizures. In Oklahoma City,
16 officers have been fully trained to seize a meth lab. At least another
20 are needed, Terhune said.

"I like doing proactive police work, but with the labs we've become a
response team," Terhune said. "It takes a special type of personality to
work this stuff because we get called out at all hours and there's a lot of
hazards involved.

"We have a lot of equipment, and we utilize it. But there's still a chance
that something will happen."

Methamphetamine has raised the ante in ways Terhune could not have imagined.

"In the old days of narcotics, we would wear blue jeans and T-shirts and
haul out the dope and call a chemist," he said.

Now they arrive at the scene toting at least $70,000 in laptop computers,
digital cameras and monitoring equipment and more closely resemble trained
chemists than they do police officers.

Often, the Oklahoma City Fire Department is called to support them in case
of a fire or explosion, and for every ounce of dope they confiscate, they
gather up six pounds of hazardous wastes.

More troubling is what they often find inside a house.

"I've had to crawl over trash to get to trash in some of these places,"
said Price, who patrolled in the Will Rogers district, before she joined
special ops. "I've seen women who were visibly pregnant but they didn't
know they were pregnant, and I've seen a 6-year-old child who was the
'adult' in the house responsible for taking care of the younger siblings
because mom and dad were doing meth for five or six days and had crashed."

Breaking up a lab and posting a placard on the door warning of
contamination is the easy part, Price said.

"It's what happened in that house and how if affects that family and that
neighborhood that's important," she said.

Terhune said they are finding more trash labs, where the chemicals are just
tossed to the side, and, worse, places where acid has eaten through the
floors and the kids are crawling on it.

The Oklahoma City Fire Department also is seeing a surge in fires and
explosions related to meth labs. Terhune said last year's total of eight
already has been doubled this year.

"A lot of times, our evidence has gone up in smoke by the time we get
there," he said.

The work isn't easy - or popular - but Terhune, 50, gives no indication of
losing his passion.

"I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of narcotics work," he said "From
the investigation standpoint, I've identified the problem and taken care of it.

"And I know I've made a difference. For a little while, at least, that meth
cook isn't going to be doin' that today."

(SIDEBAR)

What Are the Indicators of a Meth Lab?

Strong smell resembling urine, or unusual chemical smell like ether,
ammonia, or acetone

Little or no traffic during day, but lots of traffic at extremely late hours

Extra efforts made to cover windows or to reinforce doors

Residents never putting their trash out

Lab materials surrounding the property (Lantern fuel cans, red chemically
stained coffee filters, clear glass jugs, and duct tape)

Vehicles loaded with trunks, chemical containers, or basic chemistry
paraphernalia - glassware, rubber tubing, etc

Laboratory glassware being carried into the residence

Thefts of Anhydrous Ammonia fertilizer

Facts About Meth

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant, which causes long-term
changes in the human brain that are associated with impaired memory and
motor coordination.

Known as "speed," "meth," "crystal meth," and "crank," methamphetamine is
an off-white powder that can be smoked, snorted, injected or taken orally.

Produces a "high' that lasts 12 to 18 hours, compared to less than two
hours for crack cocaine.

There are two primary methods of cooking meth in Oklahoma: the red
phosphorus method, which is popular in Oklahoma City, and the anhydrous
ammonia method, which is more popular in rural parts of the state.

Generally sold in small amounts ranging from $10 to $50, meth is often
transported in folded up notebook paper or dollar bills called "bindles."

Used almost exclusively used by white males and females, with females
rating it as their drug of choice.