DRUG-MAKING GEAR SEIZED IN POMPANO; 3 ARRESTED

Police arrested three people after they raided a Pompano Beach hotel room
and found chemicals, thousands of dollars in cash and a supply of freshly
cooked methamphetamine Thursday night.

"Basically they had a traveling drug lab," said Sandra King, spokeswoman for
the Pompano Beach Police Department.

Booked into the Broward County Jail on charges of trafficking in
methamphetamine, possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia
were:

Joseph D. Baran, 23, Deerfield Beach.

Danielle L. Salamone, 26, address unknown.

Ronald J. Fillinger, 28, Fort Lauderdale.

Police received a tip recently that the trio was making methamphetamine --
commonly known as "speed" -- in Room 607 of the Santa Barbara Resort and
Yacht Club, 1301 S. Ocean Blvd.

Agents raided the room at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. They found lab equipment and
chemicals used to make the drug, including acetone.

"Those chemicals by themselves are explosive," King said. "When they're
mixed, heated, cooled -- even in the cooling process they can be explosive."

Members of the Broward Sheriff's Office bomb squad took the chemicals to the
beach and blew them up.

Inside the hotel room, police used a drug-sniffing dog to locate 28 grams of
methamphetamine.

Police said they also discovered $13,000 in Salamone's purse.

Police said the trio had been staying at the hotel on South Ocean Boulevard
for two days.

Detectives surmise the trio was making and selling the drug in their hotel room.

"They'd go from hotel to hotel, staying for just a few days," King said.
"They picked places that had kitchens, with a stove and a refrigerator." Two
members of the trio have had prior brushes with the law.

Records show Baran was arrested in 1994 in Orange County on charges of
cocaine possession, and Fillinger was arrested in 1989 on charges of
aggravated assault with a weapon and carrying a concealed weapon in Broward.