Meth trade cooking up violent stew
By Scott North, Herald Writer

When people in a north Marysville neighborhood got up
to go to work early Jan. 13, the evidence of Snohomish county's
growing methamphetamine problem was lying in the street.
The bodies of two young men were facedown on the
pavement.
Both had been fatally shot, apparently victims of a drug
deal gone bad.
Deputy prosecutor John Adcock handles cases for the
Snohomish Regional Narcotics Task Force. Usually, that means
prosecuting felony drug crimes.
But he's now preparing to try three Snohomish County
men on aggravated murder charges in connection with the
January killings.
The case, which carries potential death sentences for
the trio, can be summarized as "a double murder for about 49
bucks and an ounce of methamphetamine," Adcock said.
"I really believe that is particular crime is totally
traceable to meth," he said. "I think it is the worst drug on the
street right now, because of the carnage it causes."
Meth is a powerful and addictive stimulant sold under a
number of names, including crank, crystal and speed. It can
produce hallucinations and violent, often hairtrigger reactions in
users.
Scratch below the surface on many of the county's
ugliest violent crimes in recent years, and the meth angle will be
found, investigators say.
Consider:
Meth was coursing through the veins of a 21yearold
man in February 1995 when he fatally shot a young couple in
their south Everett apartment. The killer walked away with $600,
leaving behind a 20monthold baby girl, who died of starvation
and dehydration before her slain mother's body was found.
Meth was the favored drug for a group of friends in
Everett and Arlington who murdered and then dismembered a
man whose burned remains were found on the Tulalip Indian
Reservation in January 1996.
Jurors in the Roxanne Doll murder trial in April heard
how Richard Clark spent the hours leading up to the 7yearold's
abduction, rape and murder drinking heavily and taking meth.
Clark, who jurors decided should die for the April 1995 killing,
told a family member that he was so messed up on drugs that
he did not know whether he killed Roxanne or not.
And Meth is growing in popularity here.
"Meth is the topofthelist drug of choice on the streets
right now,:" said county sheriff's Sgt. Ron Perniciaro, who
supervises drug detectives on the regional task force.
One the favored contraband of outlaw biker gangs, meth
now appeals to a much broader following, he said. Today's
"cranksters" come from all walks of life and are just as apt to
live otherwise "straight" lifestyles, working at aerospace jobs or
in the computer software industry, for example, Perniciaro said.
Users snort, inject or smoke meth. Some even admit to
using it as a condiment and putting it on their food, said Dave
Biulyeu, a Snohomish Police Department detective on the drug
task force who has specialized in meth investigations.
In 1995, the task force seized a total of almost three and
a half pounds of meth.
But in a single arrest last month, the task force and their
counterparts of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
and other law enforcement agencies, arrested a south county
man who had roughly three pounds of methamphetamine with
an estimated street value of $150,000.
It was the largest seizure of meth since the task force
was launched in 1988, said Al Shelstad, the group's
commander. The suspect now faces federal prosecution and up
to 20 years in prison.
He was "moving tremendous amounts of meth,"
Shelstad alleged. "We feel he's been moving three or four
pounds a week in our county.
And the alleged meth dealer probably wasn't alone,
Perniciaro said. Demand of meth is supplanting cocaine, and
where there is a market, plenty of people will cash in, he said.
It also is a lot easier to get meth on the street, he said.
The drug is manufactured in clandestine drug
laboratories, often using a witch's brew of volatile and
poisonous chemicals. Most meth recipes require considerable
chemistry skill and access to a substantial amount of laboratory
quality glassware.
But a meth recipe cropping up more frequently involves
little more than a crockpot and commonly available materials,
such as overthecounter cold medicine, lithium batteries,
toluene, and plastic sportdrink bottles, Bilyeu said. The process
has been dubbed the "Nazi method" because it was patented by
the Third Reich to produce drugs for fighting fatigue in soldiers
and factory workers.
The Nazi method is quick, producing high quality meth
in minutes, but it has all the drawbacks of the more traditional
recipes, producing irritating, potentially explosive fumes and
highly toxic waste byproducts.
"The biggest problem (with meth cooks) is they are
going into hotel rooms and doing a cook in under an hour,"
Perniciaro said. Proper decontamination after a meth cook can
cost thousands of dollars, but nobody knows about the
contamination unless the fumes attract attention, he said.
The task force is cracking down on cranksters by
targeting highvolume dealers and their distribution networks,
Shelstad said.
They've pushed to have dealers prosecuted under
tougher, federal antidrug laws, which can carry up to 10 times
the punishment available in state courts, he said.
The task force also continues to seize the financial
assets of those involved in the drug trade.
Since its inception in 1988, the task force has seized
more than $584,000 cash, $788,000 in vehicles and $100,000 in
guns. The estimated street value of drug seized is in excess of
$33 million.