“CLAN” LABS: A MODERN PROBLEM
BY GREG FALKENTHAL
The fire service has long been a passive spectator in the evolution of the drug culture in America. Our involvement, for the most part, has been confined to drug-related fires and the medical treatment of those who have chosen to make drugs a part of their lives. Our view of the war on drugs has been as a battle fought primarily by law enforcement. The negative side of this approach has been that the fire service, in many ways, has failed to keep current with “modern technology” as it pertains to the use and manufacture of illicit drugs. As is true in any situation, the most vulnerable are those who are unaware of a danger or who refuse to believe that a danger exists.
Each drug poses its own set of risks. For the most part, this has been of concern to the user alone, except for those instances when fire and police personnel encounter the abuser in the course of duty. The threat does not necessarily come from any contact we may have with the end user but from the accidental contact we may have with the clandestine manufacturer. Numerous drugs have the potential to be synthesized illegally–PCP, crack cocaine, and LSD, for example.
However, the illegal drug that poses the greatest threat for the fire service and law enforcement communities is methamphetamine. In recent years, methamphetamine has gained an explosive surge in popularity in this country.
AMPHETAMINE
Amphetamine, a synthetic compound, is related to the stimulant noradrenalin, or norepinephrine, and can be dependency-related. Amphetamines were not used medically until 1927, when they were used for the treatment of narcolepsy and hyperkinesis in children. “Pep pills” (amphetamines) were issued to military personnel during World War II, to help them stay awake during extended operations. Amphetamine began to be taken intravenously during the late 1950s. It was sometimes mixed with heroin to form “speedballs.” Amphetamine use became widespread with the advent of the drug culture in the 1960s; it was not uncommon for long-haul truck drivers to pop some “bennies” to stay awake or even for housewives to take a few “black beauties” to reduce fatigue or lose a few pounds, courtesy of the family doctor. Eventually, the medical community reacted to the alarming rise in amphetamine abuse by restricting even prescription use to only the most extreme circumstances.
AMPHETAMINE TO METHAMPHETAMINE
Late in the 1960s, amphetamine users found that a more powerful derivative of the drug, methamphetamine, was easily manufactured with some readily available chemicals. Methamphetamine–or “speed,” “crank,” or “meth”–is a very powerful stimulant that is rapidly becoming the drug of choice for a broad spectrum of American society. The term “crank” originally was derived from the fact that the drug was almost exclusively used, manufactured, and distributed in the West by motorcycle clubs in the late `60s and early `70s. Gradually, its destructive cycle of use and abuse became recognized even by the abusers themselves, who coined the saying “Speed kills.”
Methamphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant, can reduce or eliminate feelings of fatigue, thereby making the user elated, euphoric, and alert. As with most amphetamines, meth is a strong appetite suppressant. These drugs may increase heart and respiratory rates, elevate blood pressure, dilate pupils and bronchioles, and diminish sensations of pain. This class of drugs is such a strong vasoconstrictor that tissue surrounding an intravenous injection site may actually become so blood starved that it dies (necroses) and may actually become gangrenous with chronic use.
Expect persons who have been under the influence of meth for extended periods to react irrationally and violently when confronted. In some instances, persons who have continuously been under the influence of methamphetamine for many days have indiscriminately shot motorists in adjacent vehicles at stop lights. The explanation given by the OtweakedO meth user after the shooting was that a passenger in the vehicle had looked at him Ofunny.O
The cooking processes used to manufacture methamphetamine produce noxious and sometimes explosive or deadly vapors. This creates an inconvenience for the lab operator, since the longer the manufacturing process takes to complete, the more likely a neighbor or passerby is to notice the odors and alert authorities. Cookers have designed elaborate ventilation systems that act as odor-control mechanisms. Some ventilation systems convert the noxious gases produced by the process to a hydrated solution when they are circulated through toilets. When the water becomes saturated with chemicals and can absorb no more, the toilet is simply flushed, thereby contaminating the waste-water treatment facility and all of the plumbing in between. One particular lab using this method was not on the city sewer system but on a septic system. Enough contaminants were flushed down the toilet to irreparably contaminate the entire property and adjacent lands.
Most reagents used in the meth process are readily obtainable from chemical supply houses; usually the only identification required is a driver?s license. Some cooks use the same chemicals more than once. Used reagents are commonly transported in the trunks of cars to self-storage type facilities, where they are kept until needed again. First responders should be alert for the signs of a drug lab in transit when responding to vehicle fires and accidents. Hydriodic acid is typically transported in plastic gasoline containers. One indication that it may be present is the weight of the container itself. A five-gallon container of gasoline would be expected to weigh 40 pounds, whereas the same container holding five gallons of acid would weigh considerably more, depending on the concentration.
Methamphetamine has long been associated with the western United States, California in particular. This is no longer the case. Meth is gaining popularity as it moves toward the Midwest and the East Coast, along the Gulf states. It has even invaded the heartland. In North Dakota, for example, meth cases have quadrupled since 1994. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, warns that meth may become Othe crack of the ?90s.O (OJustice: White Storm Warning,O Matt Bai, Newsweek, March 31, 1997.) The eastern market is becoming more lucrative; the crank demands twice the price in this market than on the West Coast. It is popular because users are offered an extended OhighO at a reasonable price. Whereas the high offered by cocaine and crack cocaine lasts less than an hour, the meth user can tweak from 12 to 24 hours on a single dose, depending on whether the drug is injected or smoked.
CLANDESTINE LABORATORIES
Since the first clandestine methamphetamine laboratory was seized in Santa Cruz, California, in 1963, the covert manufacturing process has gone through numerous changes. As law enforcement and legislators have acted to restrict the availability of target chemicals, the process of OcookingO has changed to adapt to the restrictions. As the clandestine drug lab cooking process and the different chemical reagents and precursors have changed, so have the dangers associated with each. Today, anyone with a computer and modem can be a clan-lab cook, courtesy of recipe information available over the Internet and ingredients that are easier to obtain than you might think.
All types of individuals set up methamphetamine laboratories. The education and experience levels of the cooks in seized laboratories ranged from individuals who heard about the process in prison to those who have Ph.D.s in chemistry. The average clan-lab cook, however, follows a OrecipeO and does not have the slightest idea of what he is doing chemically or of the hazards associated with the different reagents being used.
This lack of knowledge has been confirmed by statistics that show that 10 to 15 percent of the clan labs seized are discovered as a result of a fire or explosion. Between 1986 and 1994, 4,630 clandestine drug laboratories were seized in the United States. Of those seized, greater than 90 percent were manufacturing methamphetamine. According to the California Department of Justice, more than 1,400 labs were seized during 1996.
Recently, the trend has been for a large percentage of labs to be transient or portable. Many are found in low-rent motels and hotels. The process can typically be completed in slightly less than two days, after which the cook departs?often leaving behind hazardous chemical waste that will cost many thousands of dollars to clean up. Labs are also found in travel-type trailers, where the process is conducted while the trailer is towed along the highway. Some labs have been set up in buses or cargo containers that have been buried underground.
THE METHAMPHETAMINE COOKBOOK
The OoriginalO recipe for the manufacture of methamphetamine from phenyl-2-propanone/methylamine (P-2-P) may use any of the following chemicals: phenyl-2-propanone, methylamine, mercuric chloride, diethyl ether, aluminum, methanol or ethanol, acetone, and hydrochloric acid.
The Process
The P-2-P process involves an exothermic (heat-producing) chemical reduction reaction as the phenyl-2-propanone and other reagents/catalysts are combined with aluminum. Subsequent stages include the following: pH adjustment with highly corrosive acids such as hydrogen chloride, separation or distillation, vacuum filtration, and the use of highly flammable liquid solvents such as ether or acetone for purification. The entire process usually is completed over a 24-hour period.
LOW-PRESSURE HYDROGENATION METHOD
The low-pressure hydrogenation method complexes ephedrine, a common asthma medicine, with hydrogen gas to form methamphetamine. Any of the following reagents may be used: ephedrine, pseudoephedrine; chloroform; hydrogen gas; perchloric acid; thionyl chloride; palladium, on carbon (palladium black); and acetic acid.
The Process
The low-pressure hydrogenation process involves a number of highly poisonous reagents and catalysts. This process is especially dangerous because of the use of hydrogen gas. Not only is it dangerous to have hydrogen lying around in cylinders, but the cooks? usual practice of transferring the gas from its cylinder to some highly questionable homemade pressure vessels increases the hazards. All of this may take place in a lab environment with countless ignition sources.
THE EPHEDRINE METHOD
This process also complexes a hydrogen donator (hydriodic acid) with ephedrine/pseudoephedrine to produce methamphetamine and may use any of the following reagents: ephedrine, pseudoephedrine; phenyl propanolamine; red phosphorus; hydriodic acid; sodium thiosulfate; Freon 11/Freon 12; hydrogen chloride gas; sodium hydroxide; and ethanol/methanol.
The Process
The ephedrine/HI process involves the continuous heating of highly poisonous and corrosive materials over an extended period of time. The cook usually attempts to control the production of acid vapors during the heating phase. The recapture of vapors will never be completely efficient; the lab atmosphere and furnishings will always contain some level of contamination.
Some of the solid reagents must be complexed with solvents before being introduced into the process. Ethanol and methanol are two of the solvents commonly used; they then are allowed to evaporate to leave a crystalline solid. Since the cooking process is a time-sensitive operation (remember the term Ospeed,O and realize that most cooks are using it), the evaporation process may be helped along by heating the solution over a hotplate or the open flame of a portable camp stove. The spectacular and newsworthy results of this operation should be fairly predicable to students of fire chemistry.
A WORD ABOUT EPHEDRINE
Ephedrine is a widely available over-the-counter bronchodilator commonly used by asthma patients. Chemically, ephedrine is the perfect raw material for crank, since its structural formula is extremely close to that of methamphetamine. Ephedrine is effective as an appetite suppressant also and, as such, is commonly taken by weight-conscious, school-age girls. Since it is available without a prescription, it is found in virtually every convenience store and marketed under trade names such as OMini-Thins.O
Pure ephedrine is now restricted and unavailable in some areas of the United States, but it is still available in tablets with guaifenesin, another asthma medication in the areas in which it is restricted. This complex creates some difficulty for the cook, since the guaifenesin must first be separated from the ephedrine before proceeding. This separatory process also involves some highly flammable and poisonous solvents such as hexane compounds.
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Just as the desire to manufacture methamphetamine using quicker and easier methods has increased, clan-lab technology is rising to meet these needs. Small amounts of meth are manufactured using 32-ounce drinking cups, available at most convenience stores. Attaching the drinking straws together and adding another bypass tube converts these cups to two-chambered reaction vessels?referred to as OBeavis and Butthead Labs,O after the cartoon characters that often adorn these types of drinking cups. This process takes place without heat and is approximately 50 percent efficient.
Also appearing in different forms is the so-called ONazi Method,O developed by German scientists during World War II. This method uses sodium metal along with anhydrous ammonia in a refrigerated flask and typically can be completed in less than half an hour. The sodium metal is obtained by melting lye (sodium hydroxide) in an iron skillet and?with the use of a car battery, a copper cathode, and jumper cables?employing an oxidation/reduction reaction that deposits the sodium on the copper. Lithium metal obtained from discarded rechargeable batteries can be used in place of sodium.
This method is becoming popular due to the minimal time required for completion as well as the improved purity of the dope. The down side of this process is the habit of complexing the excess sodium left over in the reaction flask with water. Sodium and water react violently in a highly exothermic reaction that liberates hydrogen gas and forms a basic solution. Unless the speed of this reaction is carefully controlled, this portion of the process can have highly unpleasant consequences for the individual holding the glass reaction vessel.
OCOLLATERAL DAMAGEO
The children of drug users and manufacturers are clearly the greatest tragedy of the methamphetamine boom. In Calaveras County, California, in 1992, a clan-lab cook and the father of five stored methamphetamine reagents in and under his home for years. As a result, his children all suffered severe liver damage, the youngest child the most seriously (Washington Post, March 25, 1997). In 1992 in Vallejo, California, firefighters responded to smoke coming from a structure only to find a clan lab in production. The female operator of the lab, nine months pregnant, gave birth on the night of her arrest to a child who tested positive for methamphetamine. The extent of the child?s neurological impairment has yet to be fully determined. These are not isolated cases, and they graphically illustrate the criminal disregard meth users and cooks have for their children and the environment. Drug enforcement agents routinely encounter children at operational labs and often find lab chemicals in unlabeled or open containers stored in children?s bedrooms.
THE SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER CONNECTION
In the past couple of years, the complexion of clandestine drug laboratories has changed somewhat. In the past, the typical ephedrine HI/red phosphorus lab was limited to a single 22-liter reaction vessel that would yield about four pounds of finished product, which is still typical of most labs. Now, however, some manufacturing operations are producing massive amounts of meth in a 48-hour period.
The high-production labs are typically run by groups of very well organized individuals whose members often emigrate illegally from Mexico. Each group member has a special task to accomplish?leading up to and during the OfiestaO or cook. The recipe typically will yield about 12 to 13 pounds of methamphetamine per 22-liter reaction vessel. In a large-scale operation, it is not uncommon to find anywhere from five to 20 individual reaction vessels cooking at the same time.
Most of these labs have been in the central valley of California, but they are being established in other southwestern states. The sites are usually remote or isolated and may or may not have water or electricity. Abandoned farms, dairies, remote wilderness, and state or national park areas are ideal locations. Multiple groups may use the same location at different times. The cook usually takes over the place for a 48-hour period. No members are allowed in or out of the area until the process has been completed.
The chemicals needed for the fiesta are often obtained through legitimate businesses by OmulesO with forged means of identification. Ephedrine tablets are available for purchase in bulk through mail-order businesses. Since the fiesta is a crude manufacturing process, many of the supplies needed are conveniently obtained from the neighborhood drug store?five-gallon buckets, plastic garbage cans, bedsheets, a mop bucket and wringer, five-gallon gasoline cans, and plastic rain gear (as level B splash protection), for example.
The Process
In this process the emphasis is on quantity, not quality. Many times no attempt is made to control the production of corrosive vapors, and the reaction vessels are simply allowed to vent into the atmosphere. The equipment is crude but very effective. Bedsheets replace filter paper, and mop wringers replace vacuum funnels, but the net results are the same. Hydrogen chloride gas, corrosive acids, and organic solvents are always present in large quantities.
Recently imposed strict controls on the availability of hydriodic acid have led many of these laboratories to manufacture their own. In many respects, manufacturing the acid can be even more hazardous than any other aspect of the cook process, since it involves the sublimation of iodine in a hydrogen (H2) gas or, most commonly, acetylene (C2H2) gas atmosphere. Since the flammable range for acetylene is anywhere from 2.5 to 100 percent, there is a high probability that something will go very wrong during the process.
HAZARDS FOR FIREFIGHTERS
Drug lab operators set up production with little or no consideration for their own safety, much less that of others. Highly poisonous and unstable or explosive chemicals are used in the different manufacturing processes. A clan lab in operation will always present an inhalation hazard for anyone in the area. Phosphine, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen iodide, and others gases are extremely hazardous and can have immediate and sometimes irreversible effects on those who enter the lab atmosphere. Because 10 to 15 percent of clan labs are discovered only after a fire or explosion has occurred, firefighters may find themselves first on the scene and completely unaware of the type of environment they are entering. If the operator has survived the fire or explosion, chances are he has fled the scene long before the fire department arrives. If not, the cook and those associated with the explosion will probably be severely injured and always contaminated with lab residue. A recent Southern California lab explosion and subsequent fire took the lives of three innocent children who were asleep in the rear of a travel trailer/clan lab.
Since labs are difficult to identify from the exterior, first responders may have already become contaminated by the time they recognize the hazard. Departments should practice their emergency decontamination procedures regularly, paying special attention to protecting the respiratory systems of contaminated responders. Some clan-lab reagents, such as hydriodic acid, may cause complete respiratory collapse if inhaled.
Because of the physiological/psychological side effects of methamphetamine abuse, users are often highly paranoid and less than rational. Firearms are almost always present in large numbers at drug labs. One or two handguns are usually within reach of the cook at all times. It is safe to assume that all persons associated with the lab process will be armed.
Booby traps are also often found at clan labs, although their use has somewhat diminished in recent years. Glasses of sulfuric acid tipped over into trays of sodium cyanide crystals when doors are opened is one commonly seen trap. Another is the injection of a flammable liquid, such as gasoline or ether, into lightbulbs. The lightbulb is installed in an unplugged refrigerator; the door is then closed and the refrigerator plugged back in. The resulting completion of the electrical circuit and subsequent explosion when the unsuspecting firefighter or investigator opens the refrigerator door can be fatal.
At this point, most of us would be tempted to use standard fireground tactics of securing the power to suspected labs, which would prevent the above scenarios. Securing the power can actually make matters worse, however. Cutting the power to the entire occupancy would turn off not just heating equipment but also the supply of cooling water to condenser columns, which recondense highly poisonous acid vapors back to their liquid state. Disabling the condensers will result in the production of acid vapors that may have disastrous downwind potential.
Lab operators typically are fascinated with videos and often videotape themselves during the cooking process. Therefore, law enforcement in-vestigators usually will search cameras and VCRs for videotape evidence. Aware of these law enforcement practices, lab cooks sometimes load an empty videocassette with plastic explosive and blasting cap, place the cassette/bomb into a VCR, and wire it to the power switch. It cannot be emphasized enough that firefighters must refrain from turning any electrical switches or household appliances on or off at the site of a clandestine drug laboratory.
Mexican national laboratories have their own set of dangers associated with the process. The lab operators will be heavily armed and may even wear body armor during the cook to protect themselves from rival groups. Usually, a well-organized perimeter security patrol complete with automatic weapons, portable radios, and cellular phones is in place. At the end of the fiesta, reagents, chemical containers, and glassware are usually buried on the site. The buried chemicals along with the large production of HI fumes during the cook leave the building and surrounding areas highly contaminated with deadly waste. These sites can often be identified by the complete devastation of surrounding animal and plant life.
Responding personnel must be highly suspicious of fires that occur in abandoned buildings in remote areas that have no electricity or gas service. Even more important, they must be extremely cautious when responding to wildland fires that seem to start in the middle of nowhere, and for no reason. Wildland firefighting is normally done without respiratory protection, and responding personnel may unknowingly find themselves downwind of a wildland fire resulting from a clan-lab operation that has gone bad.
TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
It would be wonderful if, at this point, I could quote some expert?s OalwaysO or OneverO rule for fire suppression crews at the scene of a drug lab. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. It would be ideal if we could advise responding companies that they are en route to a HI/ephedrine/Red P lab, the incident commander is on scene and has obtained all of the material safety data sheets from the lab operator, the facility has secondary containment, the lab has been cleared of occupants, and the decision had been made to allow the structure to burn itself out while crews protect exposures and account for the downwind life hazard by protecting in place. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Chances are that your first exposure to a drug lab will occur under these circumstances: Law enforcement officers have served a warrant or are conducting an investigation and accidentally discover a lab in production. You are called to respond because members of the crime suppression unit who served the warrant are experiencing burning of the eyes and throat and are having difficulty breathing. The suspects are in custody, but they are contaminated. The production of fumes within the structure is increasing because someone secured utilities to the residence, and the condenser column and cooling fluids are no longer functioning. Almost no wind is blowing, and neighbors are developing symptoms.
What type of lab did the police discover? This scenario could be a recipe for chaos if you are not prepared.
An even worse scenario would be responding to a reported explosion and subsequent structure fire and being told by law enforcement officers on the scene that the residence had been under surveillance by narcotics officers as a possible lab?and that two children are unaccounted for. Now what?
The scenarios described above may be overwhelming, but they can occur. Once such a situation has developed, there is no time to begin preparing for this type of emergency. The chances for a successful operation without injuries to law enforcement and fire service personnel are maximized when the agencies have worked together to preplan such incidents. A planned and formalized response to clan-lab emergencies in which the responsibilities of the responding agencies and the interagency command structure have been established is critical to the success of any incident.
In general, however, clan-lab operations are defensive operations. As first responders, firefighters should follow the guidelines below:
Y Get firefighters out of the structure and decontaminate them.
Y Notify local or state narcotics officers.
Y Take defensive firefighting positions with protective handlines.
Y Protect exposures.
Y Do not apply water directly into the lab or on chemicals in the lab.
Y Follow the directions of law enforcement officers on the scene.
* * *
The explosive increase in the number of operational clan labs in the United States poses an ever-increasing threat to public safety. Sooner or later, most fire and police personnel will be confronted with a clan-lab incident. Fire departments should work closely with local and state drug enforcement agencies. Such a relationship will help reduce the potential for Osurprises.O Many fire departments do not have enough personnel with the knowledge and experience required to deal with the clan-lab problem. Responding firefighters should refrain from taking any offensive action to disturb or dismantle a clan lab in operation. Develop resource lists of qualified clan-lab trained personnel and chemical technicians before the need for their services arises. n
(Photographs and extensive technical assistance provided courtesy of Special Agent Jackie Long, California Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, and Corporal John Garcia, Vallejo Police Department, DEA Task Force.)
GREG FALKENTHAL is an engine company captain/haz mat technician with the City of Vallejo (CA) Fire Department. He is a staff instructor with the Santa Rosa Junior College Training Center for Fire Technology and teaches in both the California police and fire instructional systems.
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On the bench is a separatory system for pouring off meth-containing solvents. The drums of waste products may end up being dumped anywhere.
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A low-pressure hydrogenation lab. Its operator has a master`s degree from one of the most prestigious universities on the West Coast.
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A heating mantle and three-necked flask. The solutions in these containers will emit corrosive vapors for hours after the heat has been turned off unless condensers are kept in operation.
