Series: Coming Clean (Part 1C)

FROM FIRST METH LAB IN 2000, COUNTY'S PROBLEM HAS GROWN

They've been found in a backyard camper, a rental house kitchen, a garage
and the back of an SUV.

Methamphetamine laboratory seizures have come in spurts in Rowan County
since authorities raided the first true lab in 2000.

Like many other eastern states, North Carolina first started seeing signs
of the problem in the late 1990s and early in 2000s.

Rowan County followed suit. Authorities uncovered the first lab in early 2000.

After a three-year lull, four labs, including two mobile or "box" labs,
were discovered in the county in 2003.

Authorities found four more meth-making operations the following year.

Deputies have raided one home so far this year.

Here are the methamphetamine lab seizures in Rowan County:

2000

- -- Early 2000: Authorities raid a mobile home on Liberty Road. The bust
closed down the first known lab in Rowan County.

2003

- -- May 5: Rowan Sheriff's deputies raid a home at 7545 Bringle Ferry Road
and find a "box" or mobile methamphetamine lab in the master bedroom and
another in a garage of the home.

- -- Sept. 3: Authorities need eight hours to dismantle a meth lab on Oakwood
Avenue in Salisbury. A monitor detects anhydrous ammonia fumes inside the
house and methamphetamine residue on instruments, leading officers to
ventilate the house by breaking out windows and opening doors before
allowing anyone back inside.

Trappings of a typical meth-lab site are evident - things such as propane
tanks, filters, fans and an anhydrous ammonia tank inside a U-haul parked
beside the house. Police charge the two men who lived in the rental house
with possession of chemicals used in a meth lab.

- -- Sept. 25: A mobile lab is found in the trunk of a 1987 Chevrolet Cavalier.

- -- Oct. 27: After watching the activity around a storage facility at
Security Mini-Storage on Old Wilkesboro Road for several weeks, Salisbury
Police and Rowan County Sheriff's Deputies search a unit and uncover two
anhydrous ammonia tanks, one of which was homemade with a standard gas
grill propane tank. Authorities also find and "a lot of ether," according
to officers at the scene.

- -- In September: A traffic stop on Emanuel Church Road leads to the seizure
of a mobile lab stuffed in the back of a red GMC Jimmy.

2004

- -- Feb. 25: Rowan Sheriff's Deputies raid a home and backyard camper at 375
Nazareth Children's Home Road.

The case was the first in which children were present at the time of the
search.

Along with precursor items like anhydrous ammonia and a large quantity of
pseudoephedrine, searchers find a plastic Mountain Dew bottle containing
brown and white material, with a lid and plastic tubing extending from the
lid. That set up, according to a lab report completed by the N.C. State
Bureau of Investigation, is consistent with a hydrochloride gas generator
used in making meth.

- -- May 1: Authorities respond to a wooded area in southeastern Rowan County
and find a large duffel bag and bucket full of items used to craft
methamphetamine.

A suspicious neighbor called in the report after seeing news accounts about
the growing methamphetamine problem.

- -- May 28: A raid at a home at 569 Hannah Ferry Road turns up many of the
household products used to make the meth, including lye, rock salt and
camping fuel.

- -- Oct. 6: Deputies find what they describe as a "backwoods lab" during a
raid at 815 W. Park Drive off N.C. 152. Investigators find fertilizer, rock
salt and other precursor items in woods around the home.

2005

- -- March 29: A search of a home at 433 Correll Loop yields some of the
ingredients to manufacture methamphetamine, including pseudoephedrine and
several chemicals, authorities said. Officers also find two jars of liquid
concealed inside a wall of the home.