METH `SUPERLABS' INUNDATE CALIFORNIA'S CENTRAL VALLEY

Along the country roads off Highway 99, it is plain to see why the
Central Valley calls itself the nation's fruit basket. Rising from
some of the richest soil in the world, rows of fig and almond trees
give way to orange and lemon groves, grape and cherry orchards and
lettuce and cabbage plants, as far as the eye can see. But hidden
away on this soil, in abandoned barns and falling-down farmhouses,
hundreds of laboratories are churning out illegal methamphetamine,
the highly addictive stimulant that Barry McCaffrey, the former
federal drug czar, has called ``the worst drug that has ever hit
America.''

In the past few years, the Central Valley has become so inundated
with methamphetamine laboratories -- many of them run by Mexican
crime families -- that the Drug Enforcement Administration has
labeled it a ``source nation'' for the drug.

Other states, particularly Washington, Missouri and Iowa, also have
significant problems with methamphetamine labs, but 97 percent of the
``superlabs'' that can be traced to Mexican drug operations are in
California, law enforcement officials say.

Officials consider methamphetamine the fastest-growing illegal drug
in the country, feeding an epidemic of addiction that they say rivals
that of heroin and cocaine over the past few decades.

``In 1996, we looked at methamphetamine trafficking by the Mexican
nationals and had 60 investigations,'' said Joe Keefe, chief of
operations at the DEA. ``In the last couple of months, we had over
800.''

The organizations have also expanded their marketing all over the
country, he said, such that methamphetamine produced in California
can be bought on the street in Portland, Maine.

But the impact is felt acutely here as the clandestine labs poison
the Central Valley's soil with byproducts and tax the combined
resources of special squads from dozens of police agencies. Officials
have also expressed particular concerns about children who live in or
near the labs and are exposed to dangerous fumes.

In the past decade, methamphetamine production has surged in the
Central Valley. In 1999, 261 laboratories were seized in nine of the
valley's 17 counties, triple the 73 seized seven years before.

But the cartels, officials say, see the raids simply as the price of business.

``We keep busting them,'' said William Ruzzamenti, a special agent
for the DEA. ``But they keep setting up shop.''