Colombia Has Long Been Recognized by Narcotics Experts As The

Access #: 517143 Headline: Inland Drug Empire: Riverside and San Bernardino counties reportedly supply much of the nation with methamphetamine , ruining health, neighborhoods and families along the way Date: 01/23/00 Day: Sunday Credit: The Press -Enterprise Section: A Section Zone: ALL ZONES Page: A01 Byline: Raymond Smith and Aldrin Brown Caption: 1. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; DECONTAMINATED: A 5-year-old boy had to be decontaminated when police found a clandestine drug lab in a Palm Springs home in November. Riverside County Fire Department/California Department of Forestry Capt. Larry Katuls leads the boy, wearing a protective suit, to a police car. 2. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; BUSTED: Danny Howard, 38, sites outside a Moreno Valley house whle a county fire department haxzardous materials team member tests meth-lab chemicals found inside. Howard was sentenced to three years in prison for making the drug. 3. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE: Riverside County sheriff's drug investigators and a member of the Riverside County Fire department/California Department of Forestry hazardous materials team sift through trash at a large methamphetamine lab. The lab in El Cerrito, south of Corona, was discovered in December. 4. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; HIDING THE SMELL: A Riverside County sheriff's narcotics investigator interviews a suspect, above, at a methamphetamine lab that police say was operatd by a Mexican drug cartel. Smells for the livestock help mask the unusual lab ordors. Chemicals and other supplies found at the lab in El Cerrito, below, could have produced more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine , police say. 5. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; BIG MONEY: A narcotics investigator with the San Bernardino County West Valley Street Enforcement Team counts cash seized at a drug lab on Pipeline Avenue north of Chino. 6. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; DUMPING GROUNDS: Undercover San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies survey thousands of empty pseudoephedrine bottles dumped along Grove Avenue in Chino in December. Drug labs convert the nasal decongestant to methamphetamine . 7. LARGE STASH: Sheriff's deputies seized 400 cases of pseudoephedrine in October at a warehouse in Riverside. Art: PHOTOS Notes: See sidebars: "Meth: The Facts", "Searching for drugs smugglers", "A history of meth", "Meth in the Midwest", and "A new cash crop" Subject: CRIME; NARCOTICS Keys: SOURCE NATION; METHAMPHETAMINE ; METH LABS Type: SERIES Length: 94.1

Colombia has long been recognized by narcotics experts as the source nation for cocaine. Thailand is the primary origin of heroin. And the Inland Empire is a "source nation" for methamphetamine , local drug enforcement agents say, particularly in distribution of the white crystalline powder. The stimulant is sweeping across America like a chemical plague, and police in virtually every state can trace some of that supply to the Inland Empire. "We are essentially inundated with methamphetamine ," said David Hidalgo, a San Bernardino County deputy district attorney who

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 prosecuted major narcotics cases for 10 years. "Unfortunately, the Inland Empire -- San Bernardino and Riverside counties -- has become the methamphetamine capital of the world." California leads the nation in the number of methamphetamine labs, according to figures from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 40 percent of the California labs busted since 1996 were in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Over the past four years, Inland authorities have found more than 2,500 labs. The narcotic tidal wave causes obvious damage -- addled, toothless addicts; exploding homes and apartment used by careless meth "cooks;" and potentially lethal chemical dumps left behind by hit-and-run manufacturers. But The Press -Enterprise found many subtler problems, too, during a four-month investigation of the regional meth trade: * Parents who focus on making or getting meth often neglect or abuse their children. Some youngsters have died when volatile lab ingredients exploded. Those who avoid such spectacular disaster can suffer for life because the air they breathe can carry dangerous toxins. During an 18-month period, Inland authorities found nearly 500 children in homes with meth labs. Thousands in similar homes went undiscovered, police officials estimate. Some may be physically and emotionally damaged for life as a result. "Meth seems to make people do things they wouldn't do otherwise. They stop caring about their children, they stop caring about their families," Riverside County prosecutor Vince Fabrizio said. "It does destroy a lot of lives and a lot of families." * Even some parents who have never touched methamphetamine have unwittingly exposed themselves and their children to danger by moving into homes that once served as meth labs. Toxic fumes penetrate walls, floors and ceilings. After labs are discovered and dismantled, landlords are supposed to rip away contaminated material, according to health department guidelines in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. But few cleanups have been verified, county records show. Unsuspecting families move into contaminated dwellings because public agencies do a poor job coordinating proper cleanups, state and county records show. * Contamination lingers in other ways. Toxic byproducts and wastes created during lab operations typically are dumped onto the ground or washed down drains, poisoning the environment. * Meth also takes a significant toll on police agencies. Inland departments devote hundreds of people per year to attack the problem. Nearly 40 California narcotics officers were injured last year busting labs. Others developed long-term disabilities, possibly from toxic or cancer-causing chemicals in meth labs they shut down. These disabilities can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per officer in medical care and early pension payments. As Inland officials grapple with the problem, police and social service agencies nationwide know California's problems soon will be their own. And they are looking to the Golden State for solutions. "It's going to move from one place to the other. So what they see in California, we're going to see in Iowa in two or three years," said Jerry Nelson, a state drug agent in Iowa. * * *

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 'Mom-and-pop' vs. cartel In 1998, police discovered 1,717 clandestine drug labs in California, 99 percent of which involved methamphetamine , according to state narcotics officials. Nearly half, 851, were in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Drug agents say the Inland Empire's methamphetamine trade is divided into two distinct parts -- large-capacity drug-cartel labs and small-capacity, "mom-and-pop" labs. Manufacturing typically begins when a decongestant called pseudoephedrine is mixed with acid and heated. Because of that "cooking" process, meth makers are called cooks. About 85 percent of labs in California produce no more than a few ounces of methamphetamine , said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Steve Rinks. Meth users who operate "mom-and-pop" labs generally make a few ounces, just enough drug to feed their habit and have a bit left over to sell so they can buy supplies for the next batch, he said. The small stovetop labs pose the greatest danger of exploding. Amateurish, small-time cooks often have only a cursory understanding of the dangerous chemicals they're using. And typically, amid the delicate operation, the cooks are high. Smaller labs also are more likely to endanger their neighbors -- partly because they're more likely to have neighbors. Small labs usually are set up in apartments, houses, trailers, motels or anywhere the odoriferous chemicals can be used inconspicuously. The pungent mixture smells similar to putrid diapers, rotten fish or stale animal urine. The labs that help spread Inland-made methamphetamine across America are large operations, primarily controlled by Mexican drug cartels, narcotics agents say. Those labs make up only about 15 percent of all meth labs in California, but they are big, bubbling pots of noxious, toxic chemicals that can churn out more than 100 pounds of the drug in a day or two. For every pound made, labs create up to six gallons of toxic waste. Cartels cook with industrial efficiency. Pre-measured ingredients in color-coded packages are combined in a strict recipe. A single batch can net a half-million dollars or more, so big producers are loathe to risk mistakes that could wipe out a small fortune in drugs. Historically, most cartel methamphetamine shipped from California has been manufactured in the Inland Empire, the Central Valley or Mexico, drug agents say. Cartels are attracted by the Inland region's major interstate highways, vast open spaces and closeness to the Mexican border. As the problem worsened, police agencies throughout Southern California teamed up on task forces to hunt for labs and the chemicals needed to make methamphetamine . In the first nine months of 1998, police in the Inland Empire found 35 Mexican cartel labs capable of producing 20 pounds or more of meth per batch, which can take a day or two to make, according to the Inland Narcotics Clearing House. The multi-agency law-enforcement group compiles drug statistics in the Inland area and analyzes data. Lately, San Bernardino and Riverside counties have seen fewer cartel labs as federal, state and local police have joined forces against the problem. In San Bernardino County, police seized six labs that produced

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 more than 20 pounds a batch during the first nine months of 1999, compared with 18 during the same period in 1998. The number of comparable labs in Riverside County fell from 17 to 7. Pressured by law enforcement, cartels are moving some labs to other parts of California and into Mexico, said Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Guy Wallace, who is assigned to the clearinghouse. "It's irrelevant to them whether today they need to cook in San Jose and tomorrow they have to cook in Hanford," said Katina Kypridakes of the state Department of Justice. "It's (all about) convenience, availability of personnel and the items necessary to carry out the operation." Inland narcotics officers suspect other factors may be at work. Local drug agents spend most of their time finding and dismantling hundreds of small labs. And cartels simply may have grown better at hiding labs. Plenty of large labs remain undetected, drug agents suspect. The point is made on a lonely stretch of road in dairy country near Chino in November. Thirty large black trash bags filled with thousands of empty pseudoephedrine pill bottles litter the roadside. The waste included three dozen empty solvent cans. A week before, a farmer cleaned up a similar dump in the same area. "There's a Mexican national lab here somewhere, real ... close," San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Shannon Dicus said. * * * The Inland connection From California to the Carolinas, criminal investigations and drug seizures have traced tons of methamphetamine back to the Inland Empire, fueling the "source nation" reputation. * In November, two cousins from Colima, Mexico, were sentenced in Los Angeles to 27 years in federal prison as leaders of a methamphetamine trafficking group. The organization headed by Rafael Anguiano Chavez and Carlos Javier Martinez Anguiano had operated since 1996, federal prosecutors said. Meth was shipped from large labs in Apple Valley and Los Angeles County to Dallas. From there, it moved to South Carolina, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami and New York, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Feldman. Fourteen others were convicted and sentenced to state or federal prison as part of nationwide wiretap investigation that began in Dallas, Feldman said. * Also in November, police in Texas arranged to buy three pounds of methamphetamine from a Riverside area man, said Sgt. Braxton Morton of the Texas Department of Public Safety. The suspect, whom police refused to identify, was arrested when he met undercover officers in New Mexico to complete the transaction, Morton said. * In December 1998, Riverside County sheriff's investigators found 50 pounds of marijuana and a methamphetamine lab at an apartment on Burton Street in Riverside. Police allege Santos Peinado was trafficking methamphetamine and marijuana to Lincoln, Neb. Peinado pleaded not guilty to drug charges in Riverside County Superior Court. * In January 1998, Riverside County Sheriff's investigators arrested San Bernardino resident Juan Salas at his home. Officers watched Salas for a year, according to a sheriff's

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 report. In that time, officers used information they gathered to make numerous methamphetamine seizures as part of spinoff investigations, police said. When Salas was arrested, investigators found 10 pounds of methamphetamine near the gas tank of a vehicle in his garage, the report said. Two women were supposed to deliver the drugs to Muscatine, Iowa. Detectives arrested the women and dismantled the Iowa trafficking group, the report said. Salas was convicted on federal drug charges in Iowa and was sentenced to prison, Rinks said. * Since the mid-1990s, investigators in Des Moines, Iowa, have tracked meth made in the Inland area directly to the city's streets. Des Moines police Lt. Clarence Jobe estimated that 85 percent of methamphetamine in the city comes from Southern California and Mexico. * * * Moving meth nationwide Despite the Inland area's prominence as a "source nation," some of the meth manufacturing trade is moving to other areas, such as the Central Valley. The Inland region remains a prime distribution hub for meth traffickers. Most meth manufactured in California or Mexico comes through the two-county region before its journey to other states begins, drug agents say. It usually leaves California by highway. On a November evening, CHP Officer Robert Mendenhall scanned the traffic on Interstate 15 from his patrol car north of San Bernardino. Dino, Mendehall's drug-sniffing German shepherd, barked noisily behind the driver's seat. Mendenhall looks for drug traffickers. Somewhere among the thousands of cars and trucks, he says, someone is smuggling methamphetamine . He is one of 16 officers assigned to a CHP interdiction team that cruises interstates in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The team pulls over drivers for traffic violations as the first step in efforts to find drug smugglers and other criminals. They offer only general insights into the indicators they look for when choosing cars or drivers to focus on. It can be something as simple as driving a Ford, because that make has natural hiding places between metal walls that make it easier to store drugs. A car with out-of-state license plates and stickers for a local radio station might pique Mendenhall's curiosity. Sometimes after a stop, officers will ask drivers for permission to hold their wrists for a quick pulse check. Drivers' pulse rates and eyes can show signs of intoxication. When there are enough indicators, Mendenhall asks permission to search a vehicle. Drivers almost always consent, he said. Two years ago, Mendenhall stopped a man in a U-Haul truck. His pulse rate was about 180 beats per minute, more than twice the normal rate, Mendenhall said. "The driver was so nervous while I talked to him that he passed out," Mendenhall said. The U-Haul truck contained 50 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a refrigerator. Officers do not stop drivers based on a racial profile, said Sgt. Tom Carmichael, who heads the CHP's Inland drug-interdiction program. Nationwide, police agencies have been accused of using

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 profiles that cause them to stop a disproportionate number of minorities. "We do not profile based on any racial element at all," he said. To thwart police, traffickers occasionally team up. If Mendenhall shows interest in "a load car," a vehicle carrying drugs, another trafficker driving a car without drugs might swerve dangerously to divert attention. "They try to bait us," Mendenhall said. "They know what we look like, where we work." Smugglers also hire women and children, or "rent-a-families," to disguise their operations. Caches of methamphetamine are increasingly common, but highway teams also find marijuana, cocaine, heroin, guns and other contraband. Given Southern Californians' passion for driving, it's not surprising that traffickers usually smuggle methamphetamine out of the state in cars and trucks. Thousands of vehicles leave California each year carrying 1 to 20 pounds of methamphetamine in hidden compartments, fuel tanks, spare tires or other crannies, police say. Smugglers ship methamphetamine and money on buses, trains and airplanes and via U.S. mail and package delivery companies. They pack drugs in coffee grounds, mustard and other aromatic substances in bids to get past a police dog's nose. Often, the dogs aren't fooled. But the dogs can't be everywhere, and the methods of smuggling drugs are as numerous and varied as the traffickers themselves. "Your imagination is the limit, because they do it every conceivable way," said Sgt. Mike Bayer, a meth specialist with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Wholesale methamphetamine prices are about $5,000 a pound in California. Traffickers keep loads small to cut their losses in case police intercept a shipment. The real fortune is in the Midwest and eastern states, where a pound can fetch $14,000. Statewide, CHP meth seizures increased from 350 pounds in 1996 to 2,064 pounds in 1998, officials said. Highway teams in Riverside and San Bernardino counties found almost 25 percent of the total in 1998, Carmichael said. * * * Sophisticated traffickers Once methamphetamine reaches other states, cartels use a variety of techniques to gain strongholds in areas with Hispanic populations, state and federal authorities said. For instance, meth traffickers have followed Latino workers who are drawn to midwestern farms and meat-packing jobs, said Shirley Armstead, spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in St. Louis. "The Mexican drug traffickers are coming to those areas where there is a legitimate Mexican community, and they're blending in and distributing their methamphetamine that way," she said. Most methamphetamine in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and southern Illinois comes from California and Mexico, she said. Compared to meat-packing, the pay is good. Workers recruited by Mexican traffickers might receive a few hundred dollars a day to

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 work at a lab or drive a load of meth. Experienced cooks who run lab operations earn much more. Traffickers typically recruit workers from the same region in Mexico where they are based, agents said. When low-level workers are arrested, most remain mum, knowing cartel leaders kill informants' relatives, Carmichael said. "That's why they (cartels) use people they're comfortable with. They have the leverage; they have the threat of death," Carmichael said. Beyond such primitive but effective threats, the cartels use increasingly sophisticated techniques to elude authorities. They operate organizations out of the Los Angeles area, where they can broker deals for chemicals and coordinate lab setups throughout the state. Police say it's a struggle to keep up. "They're very sophisticated in their organizations," said Marie Fournier, a San Bernardino County prosecutor who specializes in major narcotics-trafficking operations. "Even within the organization, they'll compartmentalize information from workers to protect the higher-up organizations. To guard against infiltrators, she said, "they conduct countersurveillance." To neutralize electronic snoopers, "They'll dump their cell phones and change pagers as a matter of course every couple of months." The increasing sophistication makes some authorities pessimistic about their ability to prevent proliferation of the multibillion-dollar business . "I haven't seen it going down," said Sgt. Don Doster, a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy assigned to a regional task force that focuses on drug traffickers using San Bernardino County's High Desert highways. "We've seen an increase in the meth problem going out of state. "For every one stop that there's an interdiction, there's probably 10 of them that get by us." * * * The ultimate export Sometimes traffickers end up transporting more than just white crystals to other states. They also funnel know-how and criminal entrepreneurial skills. For instance, agents say one man from San Bernardino County can be linked to the plague of methamphetamine labs in Missouri since the mid-1990s. In 1993, Willi H. Olsen brought San Bernardino County methamphetamine cooker Kenny Marsh to Independence, Mo., to help set up a manufacturing operation. Olsen already was trafficking methamphetamine from California and wanted to avoid the risks of transportation, police said. Marsh taught a man named Hugh Escobar to cook. Marsh became ill and returned to California, where he died of heart failure caused by years of meth use, Independence police said. Escobar kept cooking methamphetamine and later taught Barry Fillpot, a Missouri man. Fillpot showed a few others. Olsen, Escobar and Fillpot were convicted on federal charges of manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine and sentenced to prison. By then, however, they had educated a new generation of

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018 cooks. The recipe spread in an ever-expanding circle of methamphetamine labs. "It just geometrically grows from there," said Detective Mike Skaggs of the Independence, Mo., police. In 1993, police in Independence busted a couple of labs. The number was 53 in 1995 and 110 in 1997. Skaggs believes most hatched from the work of Marsh and Escobar. "They were brought out to cook when (other traffickers) couldn't get their meth muled out here," Skaggs said. "It just went explosive. It went berserk." * * * Today How the Inland meth epidemic is spreading nationwide. Monday Meth users often neglect or abuse their children. What can be done to help children cope with the trauma? Some families struggle to reunite once a parent stops using meth. Inland counties recently started a program to give kids found in meth labs a complete health and social evaluation. - Tuesday Researchers nationwide are using the Inland area as a laboratory for studying the health effects of meth. Police officers suffer health risks because of exposure to toxic chemicals found in meth labs they bust. - Wednesday Inland families may be living in homes that once housed meth labs but were not cleaned up properly because of poor coordination, lax oversight and a gap in state laws. - Thursday Despite plentiful resources, Inland authorities say theyve been unable to slow the production or use of meth. Treatment is available in the Inland area, but overcoming a meth addiction is an excruciating, lifelong process.

Eric Vilchis 4/5/2018