TIP SINKS METH SUPER LAB

An alert realtor checking on a property for sale near Cremona led police to
one of the largest methamphetamine labs ever found in Alberta.

RCMP drug investigators -- many wearing protective suits and breathing
apparatus to shield them from the toxic stew of chemicals used to make meth
- -- converged Wednesday on the acreage, where they found more than five
kilograms of the highly addictive drug in a shop building.

The seizure is one of the biggest in the province -- and marks one of the
first times a so-called "super lab" has been found in southern Alberta.

The quantity, if sold on the street, could fetch up to $800,000.

"It's one of the larger methamphetamine labs in Alberta that's been located
to date," said Const. Al Fraser, an RCMP spokesman at the scene. "Most of
the crystal meth labs have been in the northern half of the province."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration defines a "superlab" as any
operation capable of making 4.5 kilograms of meth in a single batch.

"This lab was more than capable of that," said Staff Sgt. Birnie Smith of
the RCMP's drug section in Calgary.

Police arrested a 29-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, both from Calgary,
who were renting the shop building. Police are withholding their names
until they're formally charged.

The shop building sits on a four-hectare site that is also home to a 2,500
square foot executive home with a breathtaking view of the countryside,
about 55 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

The property is listed for sale at $519,000, which means realtor Randall
Oberik had an interest in keeping an eye on the place.

Oberik, a broker for Cowboy Trail Realty, said he decided to check on the
property Tuesday and came across the two men who have been renting the shop
since last month.

"They didn't see me come in, and I guess they didn't have time to close the
garage door (to the shop)," Oberik told the Herald.

Oberik said that while he made small talk with the two men, he noticed the
loft area of the shop was closed off.

"I heard a fan going and saw the mezzanine of the building had been
plywooded in. It looked suspicious to me," said Oberik.

Like many realtors, Oberik has been trained to spot a marijuana grow-op,
and thought that's what he might have seen.

After a few more seconds of chitchat, he left the property and called the
owner.

"The next call was to the RCMP," he said.

The Mounties said an unrelated investigation brought them to the acreage --
but that perfunctory visit gave investigators the grounds needed to obtain
a search warrant that uncovered the lab early Wednesday.

"It is heavily contaminated in there right now," Fraser said of the shop.

The house remained vacant and wasn't used in the drug operation, though
Health Canada officials and RCMP meth specialists were combing other parts
of the property to ensure chemicals used to "cook" the drug weren't dumped
elsewhere.

While meth's highly-addictive properties make it a health risk to users,
law enforcement agencies are also scrambling to address the environmental
danger presented by its manufacture.

Meth is made from household chemicals and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals
that are readily available and legal to buy, but the highly-toxic mixture
can ignite or explode during the cooking process.

Also troubling to police is that meth labs can be set up and dismantled
quickly -- and, increasingly, they're popping up in rural areas as
criminals try to escape prying eyes.

"It's a long way from the RCMP detachment (at Didsbury), so obviously
people see that as an opportunity to take advantage of the situation," said
Mountain View County Coun. Charles Van Arnam, whose division includes the site.