COOKING UP TROUBLE

Lea didn't care the chemicals she used to make methamphetamine could
explode and kill people.

Her mind was elsewhere -- on the product, a drug she'd pump into her
veins for that hot rush of a high and the profits she'd reap peddling
it.

"What you see is money," she said. "You don't care who the hell is in
there. People are blowing things up left and right. Everybody thinks
they're Chef Boyardee."

Lea, 24, isn't the only one cooking up a batch of illegal trouble in
El Paso County.

This will be a record year: Authorities busted 140 methamphetamine
labs in El Paso and Teller counties as of Saturday, a 61 percent jump
over last year when 87 were uncovered.

Four years ago, they busted five.

The numbers have risen dramatically because the drug is highly
addictive, ingredients are easy to obtain and profits are huge.

Labs dot El Paso and Teller counties. They are set up in Briargate
homes, worn west-side duplexes and modern condominiums with great views.

The increase in busts is in part because of the Colorado Springs
Police Department's formation of a special team last year to target
the labs.

"We're paying a lot more attention to the problem than we used to,"
said Cmdr. Kurt Pillard, supervisor of the Metro Vice, Narcotics and
Intelligence Unit.

"But we know of meth cooks who are readily supplying recipes because
it reduces their chances of getting caught. If there are more meth
cooks in the community, it spreads us more thin."

The drug can be made almost anywhere, unlike heroin and cocaine, in
labs that create explosive and deadly situations. Children suck in
fumes, which can be fatal, while their parents make the drug,
sometimes in the same room.

The popularity of methamphetamine -- which stimulates the central
nervous system -- is understandable.

Meth -- as it's known -- is easy to make and generates profits of 300
to 400 percent.

The majority of meth in Colorado comes from Mexico, but more people
are making it themselves. All it takes is over-the-counter cold
medicine and common household chemicals.

The labs police call "death traps" are pushing into neighborhoods as
more people get hooked on the drug.

They could be in the house next door, in a parked car or tucked into a
backpack.

"They say drugs are a victimless crime, that users are only hurting
themselves," Colorado Springs detective Richard DuVall said. "Well,
this is a case where you can say the dangers and risks go far beyond
the users."

That's because meth production creates deadly fumes that saturate
furniture and walls. Cooks use motel rooms or rental properties police
doubt are being cleaned properly.

"Cooks know they don't want this toxic crud in their own house,"
Pillard said. "So they take it someplace they feel is safe, ruin
someone else's property and leave."

As cops get smarter and quicker, so do dealers.

Larger police departments -- including Colorado Springs -- are putting
more money and personnel into finding labs.

That sends some dealers to more rural areas. There, police know little
about the drug and can't afford equipment to investigate the labs.

Exploding lab kills two

Meth users live in a dangerous world and often end up hurting
others.

Two Denver women died in January after a meth lab exploded and the
fire trapped them in a basement.

Two men were sentenced to prison in the case. A third man indicted was
killed during a confrontation with Fort Collins police after he
pointed a gun at an officer last month.

The women were the first to die in a Colorado meth lab
explosion.

Authorities don't expect them to be the last.

Some meth cases in the Pikes Peak region include:

A Sept. 27 fire in a home at the corner of 25th and West Kiowa streets
was sparked by a meth lab.

Two women were inside when firefighters arrived. Marion McNary, 38,
was arrested on suspicion of fourth-degree arson and manufacturing
meth.

In March, Scott Komatz, 30, was arrested on suspicion of using his
grandmother's Colorado Springs home to make meth while housesitting
for her. His grandmother had no knowledge of the lab, police said.

Also in March, Shane Wedor, 27, was in a stolen Ford Bronco that
carried his mobile lab when he died after crashing head-on into a
truck on U.S. Highway 24 near Peyton. The driver of the truck was
critically injured.

Tucked in Wedor's wallet was a meth recipe.

When a lab exploded in January 2001 at a Manitou Springs home, three
people inside didn't want to come out of the burning house when
firefighters arrived.

The explosion blew the garage door into pieces and caused $30,000 in
damage. Donald Smith III, 35, and Sean Duncan, 33, were charged with
manufacturing meth.

Capt. William Ragsdale, the hazardous materials coordinator for the
Colorado Springs Fire Department, didn't give meth labs much thought a
few years ago. They were just something he read about.

Now they're a regular part of his work.

"It seems the only thing safe anymore is to buy a 40-acre parcel and
put a house in the middle of it," he said.

Cheap and easy

As people learn about meth lab dangers, more report their neighbors to
police, leading to more busts.

Police don't have enough officers to investigate all the tips they
get, even though they've assigned more people to fight the problem.

In September 2001, police created a seven-member team to investigate
meth labs in El Paso and Teller counties. The team includes two
members from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and one from the
Fountain Police Department.

"Those guys are getting their tails kicked," said Pat Crouch, an agent
with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, who equates the meth
problem to an epidemic. "The biggest drug we deal with is meth. Meth
is following the same lines crack was a few years ago. It's pretty
much all over, nationwide."

Meth cooks can buy all the ingredients and equipment they need for
about $100. Some of the chemicals used are lead, mercury, iodine and
bleach.

"It's probably the most contaminated of all drugs out there," said
Mark Fraijo, a case manager and social worker at St. Francis Health
Center's Riegel Center. "It's purely chemical. It's made in bathtubs,
dirty places."

Many stores now lock up cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed
that contain pseudophedrine -- an ingredient used to make meth -- and
limit the amount sold.

Some call police when someone buys more than a person could possibly
use.

"We do have stores in town that have cameras set up to monitor," said
Sgt. Terry Curry, who heads the meth team. "If you go in and buy eight
boxes of Sudafed, it's just not logical."

The financial pull is heady.

Meth sells in Colorado Springs for about $800 an ounce.

Police see a lot of repeat offenders because people can't kick the
habit. One man was arrested seven times within six months.

Many meth users start making the drug hours after they bail out of
jail.

"These people can't control themselves," Crouch said. "They are
totally enslaved to the drug."

Fraijo, who counsels meth users, said recovery is possible.

"It's a hard drug," he said. "If they don't get any help, it's
hopeless. If they do get help, it's doable."

'I'm going to have nothing'

One repeat offender is Lea, who didn't want her real name used while
she's in jail for fear of retaliation.

She said she first used the drug at 13. Within four years, it took
over her life.

She smoked it. Snorted it. Injected it.

"Nothing is like the rush when you bang it, shoot it," she said. "Your
feet get hot. You feel you can't breathe. If there was some other way
I could do this rush, I would."

Now, 11 years after first using it, she's behind bars at the El Paso
County Criminal Justice Center.

It's not her first time. Her record includes arrests on suspicion of
manufacturing and possessing meth, forgery and theft.

"If you're doing it, you're never going to get out of it," she said.
"So you better just not do it."

She said she earned about $500 a night selling the drug, but it also
took away things.

"It ruined my life. My family can't trust me no more, not even my
kids. I don't have friends."

She has two children younger than 10. Her son lives with her sister in
Iowa.

As Lea talked, she was jittery.

She picked at her hair.

She couldn't sit still.

She asked if her daughter was in the waiting room with her
grandfather.

She wasn't.

Her daughter has asked her why she's in jail.

"I tell her I have an addiction," Lea said. "She says, 'Mama, why
can't I be your addiction?'"

When asked if she'll do meth when she gets out of jail, she
immediately said, "No."

A few seconds later, she continued.

"Well, I can't say I'm not going to. I hope and pray I can, at least
for my daughter.

"When I get out of here, I'm going to have nothing."