WAVE OF 'NAZI' DRUG LABS PLACES LUBBOCK IN DANGEROUS COMPANY

The mid-April bust of a suspected methamphetamine lab in Lubbock
signifies that the Hub City is catching up on a dangerous trend that
has plagued other cities nationwide, officials said.

Small-operation methamphetamine labs using easily obtained materials
have increasingly taken root in the Dallas Metroplex, central Texas
and Oklahoma, said Lonny Watson, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration resident agent-in-charge in Lubbock.

"In part of the country, it's been going on for a while. We're
starting to see a little more of it in this state," Watson said.

Narcotics investigators refer to such operations as "Nazi labs,"
because producers use a method developed by the Nazi Party in 1930s
Germany, Watson said. It was used then as a quick way to produce the
drug, which was distributed to soldiers to maintain their alertness,
he said.

In this method, materials and chemicals are extracted from easily
obtainable products, including batteries, fertilizers and
over-the-counter medicines to make the drug, he said.

The "Nazi labs" recently emerged in the South Plains, Watson said. Law
enforcement agents have recently broken up such labs in Abilene,
Amarillo and two residents believed to have run a lab out of a Lubbock
warehouse were arrested in mid-April, he said.

Albert Valle Cardona, 46, and John Carl Arnold, 48, both of Lubbock,
were being held in the Lubbock County Jail on Thursday in lieu of
$100,000 bond each. The men are charged with manufacture and delivery
of a controlled substance, penalty group I.

The stimulants ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, sold as caffeine
substitutes and found in some allergy medications, are used during the
manufacture process, he said.

A large quantity of the medicines and batteries are necessary to
produce an amount of drugs that could be sold, Watson said. Business
owners keeping an eye on unusually large purchases of items that can
be used in the production may be the best way to keep small drug labs
from setting up shop in the South Plains, he said.

"If someone comes and makes a suspicious purchase, we'd appreciate
knowing about it," he said. "It may help us get a handle on it before
it gets out of hand like it has in some places."

An ammonia found in fertilizers used for agriculture is also an
ingredient producers use, but most of the fertilizer used is stolen
from farmers in quantities that would likely go undetected, he said.

Lubbock Police Capt. Ricky Cross said farmers should take additional
steps to secure their fertilizer.

Labs utilizing the so-called Nazi method bring potentially toxic fumes
usually associated with methamphetamine labs - which use to be in
remote locations - into neighborhoods, Watson said. Some labs have
been discovered in apartments and hotel rooms, he said.

Cross said, "I think it's something that's moving up in the drug
world. Speed, or methamphetamine, is a very dangerous, very addictive
drug. It's very bad for the community as a whole."

People can report suspiciously large purchases of products which can
be used to manufacture methamphetamines to the local DEA office at
798-7189.