LAB SUPPLIERS INDICTED IN METH PROBE

Walnut Residents Are Accused Of Selling Equipment Used In Drug Labs And Not
Keeping Required Records.

WALNUT -- A couple was indicted Friday for selling flasks and hot
plates to people who later used them to make methamphetamine, a U.S.
attorney's office spokesman said.

A grand jury after a two-year investigation indicted Eric Iou Yu, 47,
and his wife, Ching Tse Yu, 43, for conspiring to aid and abet in the
manufacture of methamphetamine.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a
$4-million fine, U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said. The Yus
own Micro Lab Corp. and allegedly sold laboratory supplies to
methamphetamine manufacturers after removing identification tags and
plates so they could not be traced.

They also failed to record or ask customers for identification for
purchases in excess of $100, court papers allege.

When federal agents admonished them not to sell to methamphetamine
cooks, they claimed they only exported supplies overseas, and did no
local business, the documents allege.

Undercover officers followed a car with Mexican plates from Micro Lab
to a Los Angeles home on June 3, the documents allege. After getting
consent to search, officers found a lab with enough chemicals to
produce 4 pounds of methamphetamine.

The Yus were arrested Aug. 3 and released on $150,000 bail each,
Mrozek said.

They will be arraigned Monday.

Contacted at Micro Lab, Eric Yu said he has done nothing
wrong.

"We are doing legitimate business," he said. "I don't know why they
raid it. We feel very strange."

He said he had been doing legal business for 12 years and reiterated
his claim to be primarily an exporter.

"I didn't do anything illegal," he said before referring questions to
his attorney, who could not be reached Friday.

Mrozek said that prosecutions of lab supply merchants are increasing
as law enforcement looks for new methods of attacking methamphetamine
production.

"More and more we are going after medical supply companies and lab
supply companies that provide the necessary materials to manufacture
methamphetamine," Mrozek said.

Pharmacists who sell prescription drugs to ordinary customers
sometimes sell pseudoephedrine -- a decongestant, but also a key
ingredient in meth production -- to meth cooks.

"It's part of our crackdown on methamphetamine," Mrozek
said.

In January, Placentia-based ChemLab Supplies Inc. pleaded guilty to
selling chemicals and glassware to more than 100 meth labs in
California, Arizona and Nevada. As part of a plea bargain, one owner
was sentenced to 10 months and another to 15 months in federal prison.

A law passed in 1998 requires merchants to record detailed
information, including driver and vehicle license numbers, on buyers
of products needed for meth manufacturing.