RALEIGH POLICE FIND METH LAB

Two men charged in Raleigh raid

RALEIGH -- When police entered a North Raleigh home on a search for illegal
drugs last week, they stumbled across Raleigh's first known working meth
lab, a lieutenant in charge of the investigation said Thursday. Two men were
arrested in the July 15 raid at 4020 Yadkin Drive in North Hills, where
Raleigh Lt. John Lee said investigators found a desktop chemistry set
working in the middle bedroom.

Officers have found the components for making the powerful stimulant
methamphetamine in the past, but a working lab is considered one that is
"actually cooking at the time," said Lee, who oversees Raleigh's vice and
drug investigators.

Luis Rey Degadillo, 37, and Lucas Bryan Forsing, 25, were each charged with
manufacturing 14 grams of meth and maintaining a dwelling for keeping and
selling a controlled substance. Both live at the residence. Degadillo was
also charged with possession with intent to sell cocaine and possession with
intent to sell ecstasy; he is free on $20,000 bail. Forsing is free on
$10,000 bail.

When he answered his door Wednesday, Degadillo only said, "I have nothing to
say about anything," and closed the door.

The three-bedroom house sits adjacent to the Interstate 440 Beltline and is
in a neighborhood where recent home sales topped $200,000, according to Wake
County tax records. Parked in front of the home was a U-Haul truck that
Degadillo's neighbors and landlord said appeared after the police raid.

John Zeh, 80, who lives up the hill from Degadillo and Forsing, said the
home seemed popular with college-age youngsters.

Julian R. Williamson of Raleigh, who owns the home that was raided, said he
confronted Degadillo, but now he thinks he did not get a straight answer.

"He said something about a friend of theirs that was going to be moving into
the house," Williamson said. "[Police] were suspicious of his car and they
found some scales or something. He just acted like they checked it all out
and everything was all right."

Williamson didn't know that his tenants had been arrested or that police
said they had found a meth lab there. He said he had been renting the place
to Degadillo and Forsing for $1,050 a month on a month-to-month basis.

The raid occurred after an informant who had been inside the house told
police that drugs were sold and consumed there and after police found "a
white powdery residue" in a car leaving the home, according to search
warrant affidavits.

Once inside, police found glass containers with unknown liquids, muriatic
acid, Red Devil lye, boxes of matches, a hot plate and an unknown white
substance in a flask -- all items commonly used by meth cooks, according to
another affidavit.

The inventory from the search is six pages. Among the items listed are
sulfuric acid, Damp Rid, calcium chloride, Epsom salt, acetone and other
solvents, boxes of matches and of cold medicines and numerous plastic tubes
and Pyrex vacuum flasks.

Police also found $953 in cash, digital scales and handguns -- a .357 Colt
and a .22-caliber Remington, according to the inventory.

Until now, Raleigh has been spared the brunt of a scourge of
methamphetamines that has hit mostly rural parts of the state.

But Raleigh police have been preparing for just such an incident. Last
winter, police, solid waste personnel and other city workers received
training in how to recognize the signs of a clandestine lab. And
departmental operating instructions spell out what officers should do if
they happen across such a situation, which is considered explosive and
dangerous.

The operating instructions state that police should evacuate the premises to
an upwind location. And they should not touch, change or alter anything at
the scene, including turning on or off light switches or heat sources or
using a police radio or cell phone, so as not to cause "a potentially
dangerous spark."

A field commander and watch commander should be notified, and the State
Bureau of Investigation "clan lab" team should be called in, the
instructions state.

The SBI's three mobile teams had responded to 180 "clan labs" as of Monday,
compared to 177 for all of last year, 98 in 2002 and 34 in 2001, according
to the agency's records.