METH LAB BUSTS IN MOTEL ROOMS INCREASE

It's a motel manager's worst nightmare: A highly explosive blend of
chemicals and toxic vapors secretly brewing under his roof, surrounded
on all sides by unsuspecting guests.

Motel room meth labs are cropping up in the area with increasing
frequency, as evidenced by a bust this week on a suspected lab in a
motel north of Aiken and several recent Augusta-area raids. Law
enforcement officials and those in the hospitality industry say these
clandestine operations are drawn to motels for reasons of secrecy,
convenience and, in some cases, desperation.

"I would suspect people who do this in motels are known to have done
it at their homes previously and may have been arrested before," said
John Ozaluk, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's South Carolina offices.

Agent Ozaluk calls the Monday seizure of suspected trace
methamphetamine lab evidence at the Holiday Inn Express off Interstate
20 and U.S. Highway 1 "an anomaly." Of the 100 or so meth-lab seizures
made in South Carolina so far this year, only three or four were in
motel rooms, Agent Ozaluk said.

Two suspects who checked out before a housecleaning worker discovered
a strange odor in the room are still at large. Paul Allen Cureton Jr.,
37, and Amber Poston, 19, both of Pelion, are believed to have fled to
Lexington County, Aiken County sheriff's officials said. Authorities
suspect they have a toddler in tow.

Authorities say methamphetamine, a stimulant known commonly on the
street as "crank" "meth" or "crystal," is becoming increasingly easy
to make using Internet recipes and store-bought materials. Enough
equipment and ingredients to make a few ounces can be packed into a
box and stuffed in a car trunk. Drug-makers sometimes ventilate the
fumes from a hose out a rear window or into a sink or toilet. They may
even recirculate it through the air conditioning, Mr. Ozaluk said.

"Ventilation and cooking it in a confined space is a major problem,"
he said. "It also makes it very dangerous."

The Richmond County Sheriff's Office has uncovered five or six meth
labs in motel rooms, including one that was discovered after a fire
broke out. Some meth manufacturers don't even bother to ventilate,
according to Sgt. Allan Rollins of the department's narcotics unit.

"We had a couple that didn't use any ventilation, and the room stunk
to high creation," Sgt. Rollins said. "When you opened the motel room
door, the odor just overwhelmed you. And a lot of these chemicals they
deal with are explosive."

Tom Sponseller, the executive director of the Hospitality Association
of South Carolina, says motel and hotel meth labs "have been a concern
within the industry for several years."

Hoteliers have learned ways to spot drug-makers, he said.

"They typically look at long-term guests a little closer, especially
if they're moving a lot of stuff in and out of the room," Mr.
Sponseller said. Franchise chains educate their managers on what to
look for, and many are installing parking lot cameras for added security.

The DEA's Mr. Ozaluk says methamphetamine busts statewide have jumped
dramatically in the past two years. In 2001, there were only six in
South Carolina. The next year there were 100. He says the spike is
more the result of law enforcement's focus on finding labs than actual
increases in the labs themselves.