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FRESNO, California (AP) - In methamphetamine's seedy underworld, traffickers
are disguising the drug as a liquid to smuggle it into the United States
from Mexico.
Dissolved in a solution, it's sealed in tequila bottles or plastic detergent
containers to fool border agents and traffic officers. Once deep in
California's Central Valley, a national distribution hub, meth cooks convert
it into crystals - the most sought-after form on the street.
Tough policing has driven the highly toxic super-labs south of the border
where meth is manufactured outside the sight of U.S. law enforcement, but
the smaller conversion labs are popping up domestically in neighborhoods,
such as one in Fresno where a house exploded two years ago.
People inside the home had sealed it tightly so the tale-tell fumes didn't
give them away.
"These guys, they don't have Ph.D.s in chemistry," said Sgt. Matt Alexander
of the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. "They're focused on not getting
caught."
Investigators say it's impossible to know how much liquid meth crosses the
border, but agents in Central California say they have been seeing more of
it in the past few years.
A California Highway Patrol officer in late 2012 pulled over a 20-year-old
man on Interstate 5 who said he was headed to Oregon from Southern
California and seemed nervous. The officer found 15 bottles in the trunk
full of dissolved meth but labeled as Mexican tequila.
The man pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and received a federal prison
sentence of 46 months.
Three men were indicted in late 2013 and await trial after a drug task force
found 12 gallons (45 liters) of liquid meth in a Fresno house along with 42
pounds (19 kilograms) of the drug ready for sale, four guns and 5,000 rounds
of ammunition.
Officers raided a Madera home earlier this year, finding a lab used to
convert liquid meth into 176 pounds (80 kilograms) of crystals with a street
value over $1 million. Nobody was arrested, but agents said the bust dealt a
blow to the organization behind the lab.
Mike Prado, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security Investigation's Fresno office, said law enforcement agencies are
always on the lookout for creative ways cartels use to smuggle meth.
"We've become better at detecting certain things," Prado said. "When they
catch on to that, they modify their methods."
The super-labs driven south to Mexico are notoriously toxic to people and
the environment, but Prado said the small conversion labs in the Central
Valley are more dangerous. His agents have found them in densely populated
apartment buildings and foreclosed homes in quiet neighborhoods where
children play on the street.
In the conversion process, cooks evaporate off the liquid and use highly
combustible chemicals such as acetone to make crystals. The fumes are
trapped inside. "A spark can turn this into a fireball," Prado said.
That's what happened in 2012, when a home in a middle-class area of Fresno
was blown off its foundation. The blast shot the air conditioner into a
neighbor's yard; another neighbor had to replace a roof rippled by the
concussion. Two men ran from the home, and investigators said a third was
seriously injured.
Central California's interstates and proximity to Mexico make it an
attractive distribution hub for cartels, officials say.
John Donnelly, until recently in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Fresno office, said agents all over the country have
tracked meth to California's Central Valley. "We're the source point for
Seattle, Portland, Alaska and as far east as the Carolinas," Donnelly said.
Not all the meth travelling north makes its way to Central California. Two
men were arrested last month in San Bernardino when investigators found a
conversion lab, 206 pounds (93 kilograms) of crystal meth and 250 gallons
(945 liters)of the liquid capable of producing 1,250 pounds (567 kilograms)
of crystals.
The seized drugs, which investigators suspect came from Mexico, were valued
at $7.2 million.
Not all liquid meth makes it across the border. Last year, a 16-year-old
from Mexico was stopped at the crossing near San Diego. He volunteered to
take "a big sip" to convince inspectors the liquid he had was only apple
juice, not meth. The teenager began screaming in pain and died within hours.
Eric L. Olson, a Latin America researcher at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center in Washington D.C., said he witnessed agents seize
liquid meth disguised in soda bottles during a 2012 tour of the border
crossing at Laredo, Texas.
Liquid meth is just the latest innovation for transporting drugs for profit,
he said. Smugglers have used tunnels, submarines, drones and once, Olson
said, a 90-year-old farmer was used as a decoy.
"There's no end to the creativity to getting the drug to market when there's
demand," he said of the turn to liquid meth.
By Epictetus
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