GLENDALE POLICE SEIZE DRUG LAB

Glendale police made what is believed to be the first seizure of a
methamphetamine lab in Milwaukee County on Tuesday, and they arrested
the two Missouri men suspected of setting it up in a hotel.

Glendale Police Sgt. Dave Hinman said the department received
information that one of the men, wanted on a felony warrant for
methamphetamine manufacturing in Missouri, was in the area.

The men were arrested after Glendale police made a traffic stop around
noon, and police suspected that one of the two men was under the
influence of a drug. When police went to the room the men had rented
at Marriott Residence Inn, 7275 N. Port Washington Road, they
discovered the lab.

"The information that I have is that it is the first lab in Milwaukee
County," Hinman said. "My belief would be the area is probably in high
demand for meth and these people were aware of it and had a connection
here. They showed up and made it and sold it."

He said methamphetamine was discovered with the lab, but he did not
know how much.

Jack Riley, agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Wisconsin, said he could not recall another lab seizure in the
Milwaukee area.

"The biggest area for methamphetamine is in the northwest part of the
state," Reilly said. "It's along the Minnesota-Iowa corridor."

Wisconsin authorities have shown increasing concern about the drug,
which is sometimes known as the "rural crack." Because the labs are
highly explosive and create smells, they are usually found in more
rural areas.

Hinman said no one at the hotel had complained of fumes, however. The
manager of the hotel could not be reached for comment.

While they were doing their work in the Glendale hotel, the men were
staying in another hotel, Hinman said.

Methamphetamine labs can be no more than a fruit jar or crock pot,
although authorities Tuesday declined to describe the makeup of the
Glendale lab. Methamphetamine is commonly made with household
chemicals, such as cat tranquilizer or car starter fluid.

"They had all the typical ingredients," Hinman said. "It was spread
out through the room." The drug has been a major problem in Minnesota,
Missouri and Iowa, since moving eastward from California.
Methamphetamine causes anger, panic, paranoia and hallucinations. The
drug is a stimulant that affects the central nervous system and is
highly addictive.

"Clearly they were very active in producing it in a short period of
time and then moving down the road," Riley said. "It's typical of
what's occurring in the Midwest. The labs are highly mobile. They are
here one day and gone tomorrow."

Just a month ago, state Attorney General James Doyle and Peggy
Lautenschlager, U.S. attorney for the western district of Wisconsin,
announced they were launching a major effort to stem methamphetamine
use and production in the state.

They said a January study had shown the drug was spreading along the
state's western border. But they said it's important to expand efforts
- -- including training for law enforcement and educating the public --
throughout Wisconsin.

Hinman said the three Glendale officers who went to the hotel had been
to recent methamphetamine training sessions.

"Our management had enough foresight to send officers to schooling

because we assumed it was coming in our direction," he said.