6 Arrested in Raid on Large Drug Laboratory

A methamphetamine lab in Southeast Los Angeles that was producing as much as 100 pounds of the drug a week was raided Tuesday night by narcotics officials, who arrested six people and are still searching for the suspected mastermind.

The unusually large operation is yet another sign that California has become the major national distribution center for methamphetamine, authorities said.

Bob Gallardo said the state’s Clandestine Lab Task Force, which he supervises, has raided 105 labs statewide this year, compared to 103 in all of 1993.

“Right now it is a major problem” in California, Gallardo said. “In the last month, we’ve hit a lab this size or greater at the rate of one a week . . . and we’re still missing a whole lot of them.”

The raid in Los Angeles on Tuesday was unusual, officials said, because most labs located in the city are “bathtub” operations that produce no more than a pound or two of the drug per week. A telltale pungent odor, caused by mixing hydrochloride gas, Freon and other chemicals, gives away bigger manufacturers in dense urban settings, so most large labs are in remote locations, authorities said.

Agents arrested six people on drug manufacturing and distribution charges. A seventh suspected member of the manufacturing ring, whom officials would not identify, remains at large. Investigators seized equipment, chemicals and $70,000 at a furniture factory at McKinley and Slauson avenues.

In the industrial building, investigators said they found the suspects operating from a maze-like warren of small rooms, some of which were used as laboratories and others to store the toxic chemicals used to make the drugs.

Making crystal methamphetamine is lucrative. A pound of the pure drug can be sold wholesale for as much as $10,000. On the street, prices average $100 a gram.

The task force learned of the McKinley Avenue operation when a police officer reported smelling a methamphetamine lab in the area. After getting a search warrant, authorities arrested a man leaving the warehouse with approximately $60,000 in cash.

Later, about 10 p.m., members of the task force demanded that the suspects open the steel gate of the warehouse driveway. After stalling for a few moments, which investigators believe allowed the ringleader to escape, the suspects opened the gates.

The drugs were being cooked in a bathroom outfitted with heating mantles, condensers, glass tubing and four 22-liter boiling flasks, authorities said.

“This was not a bathtub operation,” said one agent. “They knew what . . . they were doing and they’d been doing it for some time.”

In the last six years, the methamphetamine industry has been dominated by undocumented Mexican nationals, authorities said.

Five of those arrested Tuesday were Mexican nationals: Elizabeth Barrios, 18; Jesus Perez-Nunez, 20; Alex Sanchez, 21; Hector Landa, 25, and Vicente Sarrata, 43. Also arrested was Jacquelin Artecona, 24. Their arraignment is scheduled for today.