YOUNGSTOWN DEA says meth is a cooking business

The DEA says the drug is often used at raves and on college campuses.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Those cooking methamphetamine at Lakeside Campground in Berlin Township may have stayed in the dangerous drug business if their single-wide trailer hadn't caught on fire, an official says.
Picture the campground setting, with people coming and going and likely no one paying attention to their neighbors, said Walter Duzzny, Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency executive director. Smoky campfires and cookouts likely obscured the chemical fumes associated with manufacturing the synthetic drug, he said.
Duzzny said two men who had been staying in the mobile home on Bedell Road near Berlin Lake "got out of Dodge" as soon as the fire started late Monday night in the trailer, which had a makeshift lab attached to it. Without the fire, they could have continued cooking the drug all summer, he said.
Duzzny called in a Haz-Mat team Tuesday morning to secure the area for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which considers it a crime scene.
Doug Lamplugh, agent in charge at the DEA in Youngstown, said the DEA has a fund to pay for cleanup of the hazardous wastes associated with methamphetamine. A DEA agent was at the scene Tuesday.
After spotting the illegal lab, Berlin Township firefighters called in the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's Maj. Michael Budd said investigators found propane tanks, beakers, chemicals, a work table and suspected methamphetamine residue in the makeshift lab.
Budd said the Barberton woman who rented the lot where the trailer was parked will be questioned as a means of locating the two men who ran away.
Duzzny described the situation at the campground as dangerous, with the threat of explosions from the propane tanks and chemicals.
What is meth?
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant manufactured in clandestine labs, which are usually small and utilize common household appliances, glassware and chemicals. It can be manufactured into pills, chunks or powder to be ingested, smoked or snorted.
Web sites show the ingredients often used to make methamphetamine are lantern fuel, cleaners, acetone, muriatic acid and minute quantities of substances found in over-the-counter decongestants.
Methamphetamine is often used at raves and on college campuses, according to the DEA.
Lamplugh said that, if confirmed, the lab at the campground is the 20th in this area for the fiscal year that runs from October 2002 to September 2003. In that period, 15 labs were found so far in Ashtabula, two in Portage, two in Mahoning (counting the one found Tuesday) and one in Columbiana. Last fiscal year, one lab was found in Trumbull and three in Ashtabula, he said.
The DEA Web site shows that local criminal groups, outlaw motorcycle gangs and, to a lesser extent, Mexican criminal groups are primarily responsible for shipping methamphetamine into and distributing it in the state. The synthetic drug is also shipped into Ohio through mail and package delivery services.
meade@vindy.com