BULLDOZE METH HOUSE, SAY CHARLES STREET NEIGHBOURS

Neighbours of an East Side drug lab discovered by fire officers last
week hope the now vacant home is condemned and bulldozed.

One resident, who did not want to be identified for fear of
retribution from organized crime gangs, said the man taken away by
police from the 1940s-era stucco-clad bungalow at 2610 Charles St. was
the second suspicious tenant in the last two years.

The previous tenant, who left about 18 months ago, was seen bringing
several plastic containers and garbage bags in and out of the home on
several occasions. That tenant, who the neighbour described only as
Asian, had no contact with the neighbours.

The 2600-block of Charles is a wide street of well-tended homes and
gardens.

The yard at 2610 is neat, with dozens of newspapers wrapped for
recycling and about a dozen empty plastic bottles of wheatgrass juice
in a blue recycling bin sitting on the back deck. The interior is
spartanly furnished: the kitchen appears unused and a large old brown
couch is the only furniture in the living room.

The basement shows signs of having been used as a laboratory, but most
of the paraphernalia was removed by the Vancouver Fire Department's
hazardous materials unit in the early hours of Jan. 8.

The paraphernalia included 40 five-gallon buckets, several large glass
beakers, a four-foot high and two-foot diameter glass container, eight
jerry cans and several feet of ventilation hose. In the home's mailbox
are several letters from utility companies addressed to Eva Li Lee.

The neighbour said its most recent tenant, a Caucasian male in his 40s
with a shaved head and beard, did not interact with neighbours.

"Everybody around here was suspicious, he didn't fit in. There was no
evidence anyone went to work and there were strange comings and
goings," the resident said, adding the home's basement was renovated
last summer.

"We were told by police that the walls of the home were permeated with
chemicals and it will probably have to be bulldozed. That's what we
are hoping for." A search of City of Vancouver records shows the owner
of the home, valued at $260,200, as Lan S. Liu.

Const. Sarah Bloor, spokeswomen for the Vancouver Police Department,
said police don't believe the property owner is linked to the drug lab
in the home's basement.

Bloor said the fire department was called at about 8 p.m. Jan. 7 by a
neighbour who spotted smoke coming out of the home's basement.

When firefighters got inside, they discovered a drug lab, described by
police as one of the largest ever found in Vancouver.

Bloor said methamphetamine was being cooked in the lab in large
volumes. "Usually we find one reaction brewing to create ounces-this
one was four reactions brewing, enough to make pounds of pills."

Illegal drug laboratories are highly dangerous because a slight change
in temperature or chemicals mixed in the wrong proportions can result
in an explosion.

When fire and police officers discovered the size of the lab, all
neighbours within a half block were evacuated with five minutes' notice.

Bloor said it's now up to Health Canada to decide whether the home is
safe for rehabitation or will need to be destroyed.

Lawrence Iverson has been charged with possession of drugs for the
purpose of trafficking, and possession for the purpose of production
in connection with the Charles Street drug lab.