Narcs dismantling the lab
Another reasonable amount of pills
CALGARY — Well educated, yet feeling aimless and suffering from low self-esteem, Adam decided to pursue a clandestine career that would earn him hundreds of thousands of dollars. It would prove devastating to him and his family. Adam was an occasional ecstasy user and one day his friend suggested that he should try making it himself. “It sounded lucrative and exciting and at that point in my life I was lost,” said Adam.
His Calgary operation started small, but grew larger. As the money rolled in, he invested in better equipment. With better equipment, he made more money. Within three years, he was making hundreds of thousands of dollars making ecstasy pills and spent over $30,000 on professional lab equipment. “As I continued producing I found that I enjoyed the challenges associated with refining my process to attain maximal yields,” he said. “The money and lifestyle associated with what I was doing was a big contributing factor.”
Though he hid it from his family and all but a few close friends, he thinks becoming a producer helped him grow as a person. “Making (and using) ecstasy made me a more confident person. I suffered from a low self-esteem prior to getting involved. That is the single biggest thing I gained from doing what I was doing — confidence.”
It came crashing down on him when police busted the operation and Adam was sentenced to federal prison time for running what he calls a mid-level lab. Adam, who agreed to be interviewed if his real name was concealed, knows the ecstasy manufacturing trade like very few others in Calgary. He now works in a downtown office and has turned his life around.
With 10 deaths in southern Alberta, and another five in British Columbia, tied to ecstasy tainted with paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) he gave the Calgary Herald his unique insights into the world of ecstasy labs. Between his experience and that of a large British Columbia lab discovered in 2008, the labs provide a first-hand glimpse into the illicit world where ecstasy is cooked. After following four shipments of solvents to the rural address in Richmond, B.C., Sgt. Dave Williams and his fellow Mounties suspected there could well be ecstasy at the four-hectare property on the banks of the Fraser River. But when the Mounties searched a house and barn even they were surprised by what they found in June 2008. There were two commercial pill presses, empty solvent drums, compressed gas cylinders, pales of waste, ventilation fans, a mix of commercial and household grade mixing equipment, cooking equipment and plenty of drugs. In all, 209 kilograms of ecstasy tablets, 127 kilograms of MDMA powder without colour and 62 kilograms of powder ready for the pill press were discovered. “By our calculations that extrapolates to about 2.7 million tablets,” said Williams, the lead investigator who took down the superlab.
There were also restricted and prohibited weapons and four improvised explosive devices. The environmental damage was also disturbing as the producers were pumping the waste made during the manufacturing process to a field. “At this site, we found basically a pipe and a pump that led to the back of the property and it was a huge wastefield where they were pumping the waste out and covering it over with a Bobcat,” said Williams.
As with most ecstasy pills, the tablets and powder did not just contain the active drug MDMA, but also filler. Drug cutting is commonplace and opens the opportunity to add other chemicals into the mix, as has been happening in Calgary and B.C. to deadly effect with the addition of PMMA. RCMP could not determine where all the pills produced in the Richmond lab went before the bust, but say tablets with similar markings and packaging as those produced in the Richmond lab were discovered as far away as San Francisco.
Five people were arrested and charged in what Williams recalls as being the second-largest ecstasy lab discovered in the country at the time. Only one person would do prison time. Richard Suzick was sentenced to two years and a day, while charges against the others were stayed. The case, one of the largest ever in the country, highlights one of the pressing concerns in the current health crisis of PMMA-tainted ecstasy. Investigators in British Columbia and Alberta are now working to find the source of the ecstasy cut with PMMA, but in previous years almost no charges have been laid on the manufacturers of the drug.
Suzick’s Richmond lab was one of the few cases of ecstasy manufacturing to make it all the way to court. B.C. RCMP’s clandestine laboratory investigative and response team shut down one MDMA lab site in 2011 and two sites that had equipment and chemicals to make the drug. In 2010, it closed one site. In Calgary, police say they have laid no charges of producing a controlled substance (ecstasy) in the last five years. Drug unit Staff Sgt. Mike Bossley said there could be labs in the city but intelligence suggests most is made elsewhere and shipped to Calgary. “Labs are difficult to locate” said Bossley. “They’re a very difficult thing to come across and we really rely heavily on tips from the public to assist us with that. They’re fairly transferable. They can be quite transient depending on the scale of the operation. If you were to produce powder and not be involved with pill pressing, you’re not dealing with a large volume of equipment that’s required. With a smaller-scale ecstasy lab, they can pop up and be taken down quite easily.”
Bossley said police do attend events where they suspect ecstasy could be used and have recently begun a public information campaign aimed at schools to warn of the dangers associated with the drug. In recent years, the focus of the drug unit has been primarily on trafficking, especially cocaine and its derivatives, and the police force’s investigations tend to centre on that drug and marijuana grow operations. When ecstasy is found — police in Calgary seized $500,000 worth of the drug in 2010 — it is usually among other drugs dealers may have in their possession. “(In) the vast majority of cases that the police service deal with, the drug is combined with a variety of other drugs during seizures,” said Bossley. “It’s the drug trafficker that offers ecstasy as part of his criminal market in addition to cocaine or other drugs.”
Adam’s lab was vastly different than the one in B.C. “Producers with lab environments like the one you alluded to have no respect for themselves, the users or the environment,” said Adam. “They are dangerous and I’d be surprised if the ‘cook’ finished any post-secondary education in chemistry. Of course, there are labs that are unhygienic and disgusting, but there are others that nearly rival professional labs.”
When he needed equipment, he did his research. “I would order it from the Fisher Scientific catalogue and when they didn’t carry the sizes that I desired I had it specially produced by a glassware provider.” He used his university-level chemistry education to make the powder, then the pills. If he had questions, he found a trusted online community of supporters, whom he thinks would have had advanced degrees in chemistry. “There is a kind of thrill in making something so valuable out of nothing,” he said. “By efficiency I mean either it ran quicker, used fewer ingredients (or less costly ingredients) or produced a more pure product for each step of the process. I modified my original recipe with their advice on more than one occasion, resulting in a really high yield from my initial precursor and in turn reduced my costs.”
He had never heard of PMMA when he was manufacturing and wonders why it’s being added. For one, adding another drug means involving more people in the operation which raises the risk level. Second, the finances don’t make much sense. “As a former producer I can say adding PMMA to pills is probably being done for one reason: they thought it would be good for business. Either they believe that a combination of PMMA and MDMA produces a better high for their clientele leading to higher sales or they thought they could increase their margins. However, the latter point doesn’t make a lot of sense since the cost of making a hit of ecstasy is relatively low (for me it was between 10 to 15 cents) to produce, so what are they really looking to save?”
The other possibility he suggests is that someone thought they were buying ecstasy (MDMA) powder but were actually sold PMMA, pressed the pills and sold them to dealers. “Hypothesizing there is a single manufacturer makes sense due to how new it is. The issue of determining if there is one producer becomes complicated since it is very easy to change the colour of the powder and the tap and dies on a pill press making it appear that there could be multiple producers. There are other things I would look for in terms of the pill to determine if there are multiple producers or not. Producers tend to form habits and continue doing what works.”
The added public attention brought on by the deaths, can’t be good news. “I can’t imagine street level dealers, distributors or even other producers are happy about it. The situation raises public and police attention to their activity and increases the stakes in terms of what they can be charged with and the corresponding length of sentences judges will hand out if they ever get caught.” What begins in the lab ultimately ends up on the streets.
Ecstasy, a drug that rose to its greatest prominence over a decade ago when it was tied to the rave scene, is consumed regularly in Calgary, though police say they believe the market has dropped in light of the PMMA deaths. Adam said the users might surprise people in that they are often young professionals. “Of course, we always hear about young teenagers doing the drug, but I’d say the largest demographic would be young adults (18-25). There are professionals who use it and married couples,” he said. “Most use ecstasy on Friday or Saturday night as it’s likely you’ll stay up pretty late and the next day is a bit of a writeoff. The reasons for using are numerous ranging from going out to have a good time, to an escape from life’s pressures, to gain intimacy with one’s spouse or just to get high. I’m sure if you ask each user they’d tell you some personal reason.”
Getting an accurate count on the size of the ecstasy market is tricky as users don’t report their illegal activity. The Canadian Alcohol and Drug Use Monitoring Survey, the country’s largest annual survey on national drug use, which interviewed over 13,000 people above age 15 in the country for its 2010 edition, found that 0.7 per cent of respondents had taken ecstasy in the last year. The same percentage took cocaine or crack. In Alberta, 4.7 per cent said they had tried ecstasy in their lifetime, which is second most in the country with only B.C., at six per cent, even higher. Police say they are seeing the drug use move away from its traditional rave setting to become more commonplace. “In the past, ecstasy was really considered to be a teenager drug,” said Bossley, of the drug unit. “For the most part, we saw a high number of users in their teens and early 20s, but today we’re seeing the market has increased to the point where a wider variety of age groups are utilizing it regularly in environments that are away from traditional raves and into homes, bars, that kind of environment.”
While he admits it was good while it lasted, the eventual fall from Adam’s arrest was profound: he hurt those closest to him. “The arrest was an embarrassment for myself but, and more importantly to me, also the rest of my family. The effects were enormous. Passport taken away, job opportunities dried up, huge financial burden due to lawyers, stress on my relationships and the enormous task of building up trust again with those that I had disappointed.”
Drums of precursor chemicals allegedly found in the mansion.
IT was a "mega" laboratory hidden in the lap of luxury, capable of producing more than $60 million in methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Inside the multimillion-dollar rainforest mansion nestled on 4.2ha deep in the Currumbin Valley are five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a six-car garage, resort-style pool -- and a massive illicit drug laboratory.
As revealed by the Bulletin yesterday, dozens of police and Australian Crime Commission officers stormed the exclusive home about 6pm on Monday and uncovered one of the largest clandestine drug labs in the country.
It was well hidden and incredibly sophisticated.
The sheer size of the operation shocked police, who seized 2.5 tonnes of precursor chemicals, industrial-size equipment and materials.
Five men have been linked to the lab and four are being held in the Southport Watchhouse on charges of producing and possessing drugs and drug-related equipment.
Police said more charges were expected to be laid in coming weeks.
Lawyer Cameron Browne appeared in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday on behalf of 28-year-old Matthew James Smith, who was arrested at the Tomewin Mountain Rd property on Monday.
He did not seek bail for his client and the matter was adjourned for mention on June 23, when Smith will be made to appear in person.
Dane James Marriot, 36, and Andreas Schmidt, 44, had their case adjourned in court today and will reappear on June 16. Darren Cutting, 29, will front court tomorrow.
The fifth man is believed to be receiving medical care in hospital and will be brought to court at a later date.
Police estimate the drug syndicate had stockpiled enough chemicals to manufacture more than 70kg of methamphetamine and a similar amount of MDMA or ecstasy.
On the streets, the combined haul would have netted more than $60 million.
The ringleaders have been linked to outlaw bikie gangs and other criminal organisations on the Gold Coast.
The raid was one of eight conducted across the city, with more planned as investigations continue.
ACC acting national manager of target development and intervention Carey Stent said the find could only be described as a "mega lab".
"In terms of the glassware that has been located at the premises, it is similar to what you would see at a pilot plant.
"This is industrial-scale equipment. This is industrial scale material."
Reaction vessels used to manufacture the drugs ranged from 20-litre and 50-litre to 100-litre containers, proving "significant capability" for the production of dangerous drugs.
Significantly, the lab had been designed to produce different types of drug.
Records show the Currumbin Valley property changed hands in 2009 for $1.7 million and police said the lab had been operating for at least two years.
Police believe drugs produced in the lab were distributed in the southeast part of the state, as well as across the NSW border.
"This was a large-scale and highly resilient drug trafficking network," Mr Stent said.
"This network had significant links to a number of associates, based not only in Queensland but also interstate."
Fight to find drug labs in the suburbs
Almost 70 per cent of the manufacture of illegal stimulants is taking place in secret laboratories in residential areas.
They're everywhere. Houses, farms, cars, caravans, hotels, motels and industrial factories. But most of the time, they're in your neighbourhood.
The Drug Debate – check out the WikiCurve to have your say
Drug manufacturing in Australia is a multibillion-dollar industry and at the heart of the trade are the clandestine laboratories sprinkled across the country.
Clan labs, as they are commonly known, range from crude, makeshift operations that involve simple processes to highly sophisticated operations that use technically advanced equipment.
The laboratories can produce extraordinary quantities of the amphetamine-type stimulants that hit the streets with names such as speed, ice and ecstasy.
According to statistics from the Australian Crime Commission's Illicit Drug Data Report, released last week, almost 70 per cent of clan labs are in residential areas.
Known to authorities as methamphetamine, detections of such substances account for about 15 per cent of all drug discoveries in NSW, including cannabis. They account for about 40 per cent of detections if cannabis isn't included.
In 2010-11, police shut down a record 703 of these operations across Australia.
The commander of the NSW Drug Squad, Detective Superintendent Nick Bingham, said police have shut down 33 this year already. In just 10 days this month, 11 clandestine labs were found and dismantled.
''We can attribute the increase to the fact that we're getting better at finding them and more than 60 per cent of labs found are as a result of … intelligence or information relating to supply or manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants and are mainly methamphetamine labs,'' Superintendent Bingham said.
In Victoria, police shut down 63 labs last year, while in Queensland authorities closed 293 operations, mostly smaller labs for personal use.
But NSW is home to the majority of medium to large laboratories, in particular, some of the ''very large'' or ''commercial'' size operations.
Superintendent Bingham said commercial labs were generally established by syndicates or organised criminals, who ''on-sell in bulk''.
''These labs churn out quantities from a few hundred grams to tens of kilograms at a time and, if not located, have the potential to manufacture hundreds of kilograms each,'' Superintendent Bingham said.
''As an example, the drug squad have busted several large labs in the past year or so that had this capacity.''
He said while it is difficult to comment on the size of the illicit drug market, last year police seized 159 kilograms of methamphetamine in 3437 seizures with a conservative street value of about $200 million.
The operations are a big money-spinner for those in the game - and are not restricted to bikie gangs.
Superintendent Bingham said Middle Eastern organised crime groups, international syndicates and Australian gangs have also been involved in drug manufacture, either by taking part in the cooking process, supplying precursor chemicals, facilitating premises to manufacture, or paying specialists from outside gangs to do the hard work for them.
There is also a growing trade in arranging the importation of precursor chemicals, such as pseudoephedrine, a task made easier because of less-stringent controls in countries such as India and China.
In the past, cold and flu medication packets were found at clan labs, but increased supervision at the cash register has made the international option more viable.
Among the products being imported is ContacNT, a pseudoephedrine-based cold and flu preparation that is made in China for the Asian market.
''It has a much higher dose of pseudo than what is manufactured here and is relatively simple to extract for preparation,'' Superintendent Bingham said.
It is understood Customs has seized more than 800 kilograms of the product in the past year, while 650 kilograms were seized last December by the NSW Drug Squad.
The Herald's Drugs Dilemma series is using WikiCurve - an interactive online tool to explore the community's views on drug laws. To have your say, go to smh.com.au and follow the link to WikiCurve.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fight-to-find-drug-labs-in-the-suburbs-20120519-1yxjp.html[/QUOTE]
Biggest ecstasy lab ever
DRUG Squad Police say an ecstasy laboratory discovered in Riverstone last week is the largest of its kind to have been found in Australia.
As of Tuesday afternoon, police had yet to declare whether any arrests had been made.
According to State Crime Command Drug Squad, the laboratory (pictured) contained enough chemicals to produce $100 million worth of the drug MDMA, also called ecstasy.
Incredibly, the laboratory was discovered by chance.
Around 4.20pm on November 9, firefighters responded to a call of smoke coming from a unit in a factory complex on Wellington Road.
Inside the unit, they discovered equipment believed to be used in the manufacture of prohibited drugs.
Quakers Hill Local Area Command police established a crime scene at the unit, keeping guard overnight.
Detective Inspector Paul Willingham of State Crime Command Drug Squad said "at the scene, we have found more than 400 litres of reaction mixture containing the drug MDMA that would have gone on to produce $100 million of street-level prohibited drug".
"We have also located 6.5 kilograms of MDMA powder with an estimated potential street value of $5.2 million, which was sitting near three tablet presses." Joining the drug squad in its investigation of the Riverstone lab are NSW Police forensic experts and detectives from Quakers Hill Police.
Superintendent Brett Henderson of Quakers Hill Local Area Command said "we have disrupted what would have been a significant prohibited drug manufacturing operation".
^^ This lab above looks the most big time I could find. And it looks very big if the figures are to go by.
Look at the size of the reaction vessel!
its like something you would see in a pharma company.
400 Litres of MDMA freebase (almost half a ton of pure MDMA!)
6.5kG of MDMA
400 Litres of freebase as we all know is 84% when it bonds to the HCL. Approx 476 kilos of MDMA (very approx).
Total stash on site - 482.5kG MDMA - 482, 500, 000 tablets.
Over 482 million tablets that is fucking MENTAL!!
I never realised the Aussies got that fucked up LOL
I am amazed someone would attempt such a sizable operation.
Operating on this scale doesnt make sense to me unless you were in a complete corrupt country and everyone was paid off.
I can imagine some of Eastern Europe housing this type of operation.
I would say this is AN MDMA SUPERLAB. I have never seen in the news anything operating on this scale before.
Superintendent Brett Henderson of Quakers Hill Local Area Command said "we have disrupted what would have been a significant prohibited drug manufacturing operation".
Really now? I would have never guessed :D :D
