METRO AREA SEEING SURGE IN METH LABS

83 Sites Discovered In Past Three Months

A cleaning crew was surprised to find cat box litter beneath the rug inside
an Adams County motel room.

It was not the sign of a sloppy cat owner, but evidence of something far
deadlier.

The "guests" who had just cleared out were using the room to cook up a
small batch of methamphetamine.

They vented the highly toxic gases into absorbent clay cat box filler and
left it behind. The process exposed motel guests to the risk of fire or
explosion.

The number of such makeshift clandestine laboratories uncovered in the
metro area has mushroomed in the past 12 months.

In the past three months alone, narcotics officers have discovered 83 labs
- -- half the total for the six-county metro area for all of last year.

"The last four years, we've doubled every year," said Sgt. Ray Booras of
the West Metro Drug Task Force. "The only reason we won't double this year
is that we flat run out of time to do them."

The trend mirrors a pattern nationwide. According to the U.S. Justice
Department, law enforcement seized 7,200 clandestine meth labs in 1999.

The National Drug Intelligence Center's Drug Threat Assessment for 2001
ranked methamphetamine as the second-greatest drug threat facing the United
States.

The escalation is the result of a refinement in the way methamphetamine is
being produced, said Sgt. Jim Gerhardt of the North Metro Drug Task Force.

A decade ago, meth labs tended to be discovered in rural areas where a
"cook" with some background in chemistry would produce large batches of the
drug.

The production often took up to 72 hours and generated an intense,
ammonia-like odor similar to cat urine, Gerhardt said. Thus, meth labs
often were located in rural areas.

Dealers found a simpler way to make a purer grade of methamphetamine. They
remove one oxygen molecule from the over-the-counter decongestant ephedrine
or pseudoephedrine.

The process takes about 10 hours and requires far less extensive knowledge
of chemistry, Gerhardt said.

The new methods have spawned a new kind of operation called "box labs"
since the materials can be contained in a cardboard box.

Police have found the more portable box labs in automobiles, apartments,
storage units, an airplane hangar, mobile homes and, with alarming
frequency, in motel rooms.

Earlier this year, Denver police found two labs in one block. People in the
drug trade referred to the labs as "the compound," but others in the
neighborhood never knew they existed.

Most of the box labs have been found in Denver's suburbs. Of the 166 labs
busted in 2000, all but 20 were in the suburbs.

The smaller labs have changed the distribution pattern of the drug and its
prosecution, said Tom Ward, assistant special agent in charge of the Denver
office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In the past, dealers would make 5 kilograms of the drug at a time and
distribute it through a network, 1 kilo at a time, Ward said.

"Now there are guys making 2 ounces at a time, one of which is for their
selves," he added. "They'll sell it to their friends 10 grams at a time.
And nobody has the time to get involved in a 10-gram case."

While the labs tend to cook smaller batches, they still pose a considerable
risk of explosion and environmental hazards, said Lt. John Costigan of the
Denver Police Department's narcotics bureau.

"We're concerned that one of these days we're going to have an explosion or
a fire call to one of these motels," Costigan said.

The West Metro Drug Task force recently issued a flier to motel employees,
describing tell-tale clues to people using rooms as makeshift labs.

They warned employees to be suspicious of guests who shun room service or
bring in large quantities of glassware or cat box liner.

Authorities estimate every pound of methamphetamine produced generates
about 6 pounds of hazardous waste.

In Denver alone, narcotics officers confiscated 209 pounds of
methamphetamine last year. That means the dealers had to dispose of more
than 1,200 pounds of hazardous waste.

Earlier this month, narcotics officers found 220 pounds of hazardous waste
near a Thornton mobile home with three labs inside.

There was just enough waste that investigators had to apply for a special
permit from the Environmental Protection Agency in order to move it,
Gerhardt said.

Sgt. Ray Booras of the West Metro Drug Task Force worries about patrol
officers who may be exposed to chemicals while responding to routine calls
that could reveal a lab.

"The thing that's kind of frightening for us is that no one really knows
what the long-term effects are," he said.

Denver narcotics investigator Marty Vanover knows some of the short-term
effects firsthand.

Vanover was accidently exposed to some iodine during one investigation. It
left him with a loss of hearing for several weeks.

Later, he mentioned this to a guy who had been busted for manufacturing meth.

"He said, `Yeah, I used to be like that when I first started, but I'm used
to it now,' " Vanover said, adding "their need for methamphetamine
overcomes their concern for their own health."