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San Diego: A City With a Long & Distinguished History In the Annals of Crystal Meth

jspun

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[METHAMPHETAMINE: FROM THE STREETS OF SAN DIEGO


This is a transcript of a broadcast that documents the long and glorious meth scene in San Diego. A scene that has its roots as far back as World War II. It also is a good example of the priniciple that drug prohibition creates many, many more problems than it attempts to fix. I've pruned this but I will post the link incase anyone is interested. According to the authors, the illicit meth scene got its toehold here first.


Methamphetamine: From the Streets of San Diego


FOR METH MANUFACTURING AND USE. METHAMPHETAMINE WAS KNOWN AS “IN THE 1980’S, SAN DIEGO WAS THE METH CAPITAL OF THE NATION - THE CENTER BLUE COLLAR” OR THE WORKING MAN’S COCAINE. BUT NOW, A MUCH STRONGER FORM OF METH IS ON THE STREET AND IT IS THE DRUG OF CHOICE FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TWEAKERS.



DR. STALCUP:

If you look at the history of the drug, certainly the origin of our problems began in World War II where the drug, there are many people say had

WWII ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE : military applications, was used during the war.

Bombs sound up
IN THE 1940’S, GERMAN, JAPANESE AND AMERICAN MILITARIES EXPERIMENTED WITH EARLY FORMS OF METHAMPHETAMINE TO FIND WAYS TO KEEP SOLDIERS ALERT AND FEELING INVINCIBLE. AMERICAN BOMBER PILOTS WERE GIVEN FORMS OF SPEED TO STAY AWAKE ON THE LONG FLIGHTS, LIKE THOSE FROM SAIPAN TO JAPAN. MANY OTHER AMERICAN MILITARY PERSONNEL WERE INTRODUCED

Post WWII footage: TO METHAMPHETAMINE DURING THE POST-WAR YEARS IN JAPAN.

STALCUP cont.

At the end of the war, the Japanese methamphetamine epidemic was really quite widespread. It was probably the first major drug epidemic the world had ever seen, was Japan at the end of World War II. Lots of American military personnel, men and women, became involved in methamphetamine. And when they mustered out of the military, we saw a spread of methamphetamine use from Japan to the Marshall Islands to the

Returning soldiers, sailors to SD: Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and then the first sight on the mainland was really San Diego because this was the major transshipment route that folks coming out of the military from the Pacific Theater came through San Diego. So San Diego is really first hit.


Archival post war photos: THE MILITARY PROVIDED A STRUCTURE AND CAMARADERIE THAT WAS DIFFICULT TO DUPLICATE IN CIVILIAN LIFE, SO MANY VETERANS FORMED ASSOCIATIONS, OR CLUBS. A SMALL NUMBER

Bomber nose art: OF THESE CLUBS EVOLVED INTO “OUTLAW” BIKER GANGS.



FOR MUCH OF THE BIKER WORLD, METH WAS THE TICKET TO WILD TIMES AND MONEY.

BY THE 1980’S METHAMPHETAMINE WAS BIG BUSINESS.



“BILL”
FORMER METH COOK

BILL:

V/o to o/c: I first started making methamphetamine in 1979///

I cooked probably, approximately every 3 weeks, made $25 to $40,000, and I started to enjoy making money, making a large amount of money. And it was easy, it was really easy (laughing) very easy.



More S.D./HA’s Biker file footage: BILL WAS NEVER A BIKER, BUT BIKER GANG’S PROFITTED FROM METH THAT BILL AND OTHERS MADE BY CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION OF THE DRUG.



Pan East County: THE BIKER’S STRONGHOLD WAS SAN DIEGO’S EAST COUNTY, PLACES LIKE

City signs: LAKESIDE, SANTEE AND EL CAJON. FROM HERE, THE BIKERS RULED THE BUSINESS OF METHAMPHETAMINE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FROM THE 1960’S TO THE 1980’S.



BUT IN 1989, ALL THAT CHANGED.



BIRKMEYER:

Dissolve to O/C: ...Operation // Triple Neck was an undercover operation where a law enforcement officer along with a confidential informant and others worked in a chemical supply business...

What would happen is people would come into the

archival footage of front desk undercover store front//

and people at Triple Neck store and purchase chemicals, and they would engage in discussion about methamphetamine manufacture, just as they had done in other businesses with the person they believed to be the owner and the person they believed to be working in the store. And all of their conversations and the items they purchased were caught on tape.





SOUND-UP HIDDEN CAMERA FOOTAGE

Meth cook passes bag of meth

To Chuck Potter

Potter: How long did it take you to cook it?

Meth cook: About 42 hours

Potter: 42?

Meth cook: uh huh.



V/o over hidden camera footage: CHUCK POTTER WAS THE UNDERCOVER AGENT WHO WORKED IN THE STORE. HE BROUGHT MANY AN UNSUSPECTING METH COOK INTO HIS BACKROOM.



v/o to o/c: POTTER:

...it went for 9 months, with me being in the store on

a daily basis until March of 1989 when we closed the store, got our indictments put together, put targeted packages together, and we had the largest single roundup in San Diego County history.







Archival footage:

CALIFORNIA STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL

JOHN VAN DE KAMP

March 20, 1989

TNS Press Conference “Indeed, this was the largest single drug enforcement action ever undertaken against illicit drug manufacturers in the United States. And I must tell you that based on what I’ve heard today and yesterday, it was an extraordinary, unqualified success”





Triple Neck news footage of arrests: TRIPLE NECK WAS A TRIUMPH FOR LAW

Sound-up police: ENFORCEMENT, BUT IT ALSO CREATED AN OPENING IN THE METH TRADE. ONCE

Pan from TJ to INS Bronco AGAIN SAN DIEGO WAS IN A PIVOTAL LOCATION FOR THE BUSINESS OF METHAMPHETAMINE.

BIRKMEYER:

O/c: With great efficiency, Mexican cartels began to take over the manufacturing of methamphetamine throughout San Diego County and elsewhere in California.


THE MEXICAN

N. County pan CARTELS CENTERED THEIR METH PRODUCTION IN THE RURAL FARMLANDS AND AVOCADO GROVES OF SAN DIEGO’S NORTH COUNTY, ACRES AND ACRES
w/shots of groves, migrants in field: OF REMOTE AREAS WITH EASY ACCESS TO CHEAP MIGRANT LABOR.

THE MOST NOTABLE OF THE MEXICAN METH

ORGANIZATIONS ARE THOSE CONTROLLED

Wanted poster of Ramon Arreleno: BY THE ARRELANO-FELIX FAMILY AND THE GUADALAJARA BASED AMEZCUA

Photos of Amezcua Brothers: CONTRERAS BROTHERS.



THESE ORGANIZATIONS NOW CONTROL METHAMPHETAMINE AS THE COLOMBIAN CARTELS CONTROLLED COCAINE.
MIKE KELLY,

CALIFORNIA BUREAU OF NARCOTICS

ENFORCEMENT

v/o to o/c: They’re highly armed, they’re absolutely fearless. They will not hesitate to use violence, //And they

Guns: carry big guns, assault rifles, automatic, fully automatic weapons.




Police hidden camera footage of MEXICAN LABS PRODUCE AS MUCH AS 200

Mexican meth lab/cook POUNDS OF METHAMPHETAMINE AT A COOK. THEIR ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ESTABLISHED DRUG SMUGGLING CORRIDORS TO DISTRIBUTE METH AND ITS PRECURSOR CHEMICALS. METHAMPHETAMINE HAS NOW SPREAD FROM SAN DIEGO THROUGHOUT

Meth Headlines from heartland: CALIFORNIA, ACROSS THE MIDWEST AND INTO THE AMERICAN HEARTLAND.


W/s San Diego pan: SAN DIEGO IS NO LONGER THE METH CAPITAL OF THE NATION. BUT IT IS WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT CALLS A SOURCE COUNTRY FOR METH, MEANING A CRITICAL
INS Bronco overlooking TJ: STAGING POINT FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF CHEMICALS AND METHAMPHETAMINE TO THE REST OF THE UNITED STATES.


BIRKMEYER:

o/c: There is also a very significant second type of cook, or operator, and those are the smaller, what some people call "stove-top cooks," that is, they do it in their home, generally, where Mexican national labs

Police footage of labs: are done in rural areas, sheds, farms, places like

that, the stove-top cook would be done in somebody's backyard, in their garage, in their

kitchen on top of their stove.



THE HOME, OR STOVE-TOP LABS CAN VARY IN SIZE. MOST ARE PRIMITIVE, OFTEN USING SIMPLE RECIPES TAKEN RIGHT OFF

Internet meth recipe: THE INTERNET, AND INCORPORATING

Shots of chemicals: CHEMICALS SUCH AS RED DEVIL LYE, ACETONE, EVEN BATTERY ACID.



Move to sign in drug store: IN RECENT YEARS, LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL LAWS HAVE BEEN ENACTED TO RESTRICT SOME OF THE CHEMICALS USED TO MAKE METH.



If you could look at the bulk quantities of pseudoephedrine tablets, for instance that pour into San Diego County and elsewhere in California, you would be shocked. There is no way on this Earth that you could have that much postnasal drip or cold symptoms in one particular community.



Pan of chemicals: LIKE PSEUDOEPHEDRINE, MANY OF THE

Can of alcohol: CHEMICALS USED TO MAKE METHAMPHETAMINE HAVE LEGITIMATE USES. THIS HAS MADE LAWS TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THESE CHEMICALS

Shot of drug: DIFFICULT TO ENFORCE. AND THERE ARE TOO MANY WAYS TO MAKE METH.



BIRKMEYER:

O/C: One of the biggest problems with attempting to stop a methamphetamine manufacturer by denying access to certain chemicals is that cooks are very clever, and they immediately look for a substitute ingredient.



BILL T4B P3

o/c: There is always gonna be a way for them to adapt. //

Police meth lab footage: When they stop one synthetic route of making methamphetamine, they’ll stop it but there’s sure gonna be another way that’s gonna become

O/C: predominant. //The demand is too great.



B-roll Bill on street: TO PROTECT HIS PRIVACY, BILL ASKED THAT WE NOT USE HIS NAME IN THIS STORY. HE NOW WORKS AT A LOCAL DRUG TREATMENT CENTER, BUT FOR 12 YEARS, HE MANUFACTURED LARGE AMOUNTS OF METHAMPHETAMINE IN SAN DIEGO.



BILL:

o/c: It’s a feeling of power actually, it’s a feeling of success, control, and there’s like a certain amount of magic involved. //

I would put the chemicals in// and I know that just by putting those chemicals in, and adding heat to it, that it’s going to turn into money. It’s like counterfeiting kinda, it’s kinda like, I would smell the smells of the chemicals, I would put them together, put them together, and it was like exciting, it’s like counterfeiting almost, it’s money, put it in, I smell it, and I know that’s money, here it comes, the money is coming.



Meth lab explosion footage: COOKING METHAMPHETAMINE IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. IF THE SLIGHTEST ERROR IS MADE, THE ENTIRE LAB, HOME, OR APARTMENT CAN EXPLODE.



BILL:

I would start out thinking clearly, and the more fumes I would breathe, and the closer I got to having an end product of methamphetamine, I would a, become so high on the fumes, that I would be delusional.



BIRKMEYER:

O/c: First off, you have a very volatile chemical reaction that’s occurring, and secondly, you have somebody who, if they're using the drug, is sleepless, paranoid, and probably not thinking clearly. So if they believe that somebody perhaps is watching them or violating the rules of the methamphetamine operation, they could be very dangerous.



BILL:

We wanted to be ready, we actually had sat down and talked about if anything comes down, we are not gonna be taken alive. If the police come, we’re just gonna, we’re just gonna shoot it out. You know, we don’t want to go to jail for the rest of our lives.





BUT THESE LABS ARE NOT JUST IN THE EAST AND NORTH COUNTIES ANYMORE.





BIRKMEYER:

If you took out a map of San Diego to point out every place where methamphetamine//was // made, you would find the places that you would think ordinarily, North County, East County. What would shock you though is that you would also find it in very well-to-do neighborhoods, University Heights,

Montage: Shots of towns named La Jolla, Pacific Beach, certainly the South Bay area,

or signs identifying towns :



BILL:

Mira Mesa, Kearny Mesa, Chula Vista, El Cajon…



BIRKMEYER:

Map graphic which goes red: If you were to put a red dot on every home or business or place that was affected by either methamphetamine manufacturer or methamphetamine use, the whole city of San Diego would be covered with red dots.// It’s pervasive throughout San Diego County.




KYLE:

o/c: I started using meth in ninth grade. And at first I thought it was God send.



Group of kids on street: IN 1997, NEARLY 20% OF TEENS ENTERING

Juv. Hall cafeteria: JUVENILE HALL IN SAN DIEGO TESTED POSTIVE FOR METHAMPHETAMINE.

Kyle on street: KYLE IS NINETEEN YEARS OLD. HE’S BEEN IN DRUG TREATMENT FOR 3 MONTHS.





:

Kyle cont.

V/o to o/c: Prior to my use I had always been isolated and alone. I had very few friends. I was overweight and did extremely poorly in school. And as soon as I started using crystal, I felt like everything changed almost overnight.



All of a sudden I had the energy to do everything that I wanted to. I could go to parties, I could talk to people, I could make friends, I could talk to girls. I could start getting good grades, and I had never gotten good grades before and all of a sudden I could get A's and B's easily



“Vista” sign: KYLE KNOWS HE CAN BUY METH ALL OVER SAN DIEGO, BUT HE TOOK US HOME, TO VISTA.



KYLE:

O/C: If you wanted to buy meth in Vista, there is a street called Santa Fe // about a block away from Vista

Pan of Santa Fe Ave community: High, and the whole community around Vista High was made up primarily of tweakers//

O/c: There was a house that we used to call it the store. And at the store there was a window that was either

opened or closed. If the window was open, then the store was open. If the window was closed, then the store was closed. And behind the window was an old Mexican guy with a rifle who dealt crystal. And you’d just go up there twenty-four hours a day and put your money through the window and he’d give you your crystal back.



Santa Fe drive-by: It seemed sometimes like every third house was a

Cutaways: kid on bike/on phone: drug house. Everybody you saw on the street was either dealing or using or involved in some way with

Kyle walking down storefront the process. At least that’s how it seemed to me

he used to deliver meth to: being in that world.


http://www.leeharvey.net/meth/script.htm

This article describes the chemical supply companies that were present in San Diego until a sting in 1989 closed them. At the stores, one could by the chemicals to make meth which came with detailed instructions on making the drug.


1980s: Meth explodes in San Diego
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:36 AM PDT ∞

Enter first comment.Increase FontDecrease Font email this story print this story For most of its history, methamphetamine had been a second-class drug, never as popular as amphetamines and never as glamorous among drug users as cocaine, heroin or LSD.

Then, about 60 years after it was first created by a Japanese scientist, the drug of choice for outlaw bikers and the rural poor suddenly was being used in Southern California by white-collar workers, young mothers, high school students, nurses, teachers and other seemingly unlikely groups.

The drug's popularity particularly soared in San Diego, which became known to many as the methamphetamine capital of the nation in the 1980s.

Several factors have been associated with the drug's rapid rise in popularity among such broad demographics, but among the most significant was a change in the way methamphetamine was produced.

In 1980, the federal government classified as a controlled substance the chemical phenylacetone, also known as P2P, which until then had been a main ingredient of methamphetamine, which was being made in illicit labs.

Within a year of that new classification, federal Drug Enforcement Agency raids in San Diego were discovering labs making meth with ephedrine, the active ingredient in over-the-counter decongestants. The new meth was easier to make, its ingredients were legal and easy to find, and the drug itself was stronger and more addictive.

San Diego also was in a perfect storm, geographically speaking, for meth use to spread. Since the 1960s, the drug had been distributed in California by the Hells Angels motorcycle club, which was founded north of San Diego County in San Bernardino.

Just to the south, methamphetamine was being made in Mexico, where labs operated with little interference from the law.

Adding to the county's meth explosion, unscrupulous entrepreneurs who saw a booming market opened businesses and started selling the drug's active ingredients, known as precursors, and lab equipment directly to drug manufacturers.

Precursors such as ephedrine, hydriodic acid, red phosphorus and Freon were available at several chemical firms, but two stood out as the biggest supplier for meth labs in the 1980s.

Chuck, a retired undercover officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, remembers those labs well. As an Oceanside Police Department sergeant, he participated in the raid on one of the firms. As an undercover agent with the state Department of Justice, he snared almost 100 meth-makers and shut down 29 labs in the biggest meth bust in history.

Retired since 2003 from a career that included 20 years in the Marines, Chuck sports tattoos, a finely trimmed gray beard, and still rides a Harley-Davidson. A martial-arts expert, he also still has the intense look of a man only a fool would cross.

"Basically, I looked and had to walk and talk the outlaw attitude," he said in a deep gravely voice not unlike actor Sam Elliott's.

The anatomy of meth busts

Chuck was a clean-cut Oceanside police officer from 1972 to 1988, and in his final year on the force helped shut down a chemical company called Quantum on Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad.

Quantum was little more than a convenience store for meth manufacturers, Chuck said. While the business sold only goods that were legal at the time, they broke the law because they knew their products were being used to make an illegal drug.

Chuck said dozens of customers came into Quantum daily, and the business operated for several years before investigators gathered enough evidence to justify a search warrant and a raid in 1988.

"They were shocked," Chuck said about the day he and other officers came through Quantum's front door. "They were sitting there in their shorts."

Quantum's owner fled the country but was arrested years later, Chuck said. Others working in the shop feigned ignorance about how their products were used but were convicted, he said.

Quantum was not the only company capitalizing on San Diego County's new drug problem in the 1980s.

Beginning in 1982, the DEA began investigating RJM Laboratories, another precursor wholesale business.

Operating a cash business with little paperwork, RJM made a difficult target for the DEA, which suspected the company of supplying more than 2,000 meth labs in California, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey and Washington, Frank Owen wrote in his book, "No Speed Limit."

In 1986, RJM owner Robert Miskinis brazenly hired a lobbyist who persuaded lawmakers to delay implementing a bill that required bulk purchases of ephedrines to be reported to the state Department of Justice, Owen wrote. After the media reported that Miskinis had been charged in 1978 with making methamphetamine, embarrassed politicians revoked the delay that they had agreed to earlier.

Two years later, the DEA had built a case and raided three RJM labs, including one in Lakeside, where agents found a 200-liter flask capable of making 80 pounds of meth and enough ephedrine and other chemicals to make 50 tons of the drug.

In 1989, the DEA raided three other chemical houses believed to be owned by Miskinis, including one in Carlsbad that sold assembled meth kits and instruction books.

Miskinis was sentenced to 40 years but served only four after an appeals court decided he was not adequately represented by his attorney, Owen wrote.

Undercover bust nabs nearly 100

Chuck, a state Justice Department agent at the time, said RJM and Quantum appeared to be businesses unique to San Diego County, although he knew of a smaller chemical business in Las Vegas that was investigated by authorities there.

There was one other illicit chemical lab in San Diego County, though, and Chuck was the man behind the counter.

With a gun tucked under his belt and a tape recorder strapped to his back, Chuck worked the back room of Triple Neck Scientific on Magnatron Boulevard in Kearny Mesa for nine months in 1988 and 1989.

With hidden cameras capturing the transactions, Chuck trapped his customers in a well-orchestrated ruse. The business advertised in magazines aimed to attract dealers, and its very name ---- Triple Neck ---- referred to the type of round-bottomed flasks commonly used in meth labs.

Looking every bit as tough as his worst customers, Chuck warned Triple Neck clients to keep an eye out for cops who might spot them coming and going to the business. Meanwhile, he made notes of the license plates of the cars pulling out of his lot.

Chuck also asked customers to bring in the meth they were making, explaining that he wanted to supply some to his friends but didn't want to make it himself. When offered the drug, he declined and said he was a recovering heroin addict who no longer used.

"You didn't pay income tax on any of this, did you?" he would ask his customers selling the drug.

"Hell no!" they would reply with a laugh, oblivious to the hidden cameras that were further incriminating them.

Chuck's act included questioning customers about whether they themselves were actual undercover agents. When a biker turned the tables and patted him on the back and felt his tape recorder, Chuck said it was a concealed gun. The biker asked to see it.

"You'll see my gun only if I need you to see it," Chuck told him. "And it'll be the last thing you ever see."

The biker was satisfied.

But not all customers were hardened bikers. One was a soccer coach, another a nurse, and another was a Neighborhood Watch captain.

Chuck specifically remembers a man who sent his children, ages 10 and 15, into his business to buy chemicals. He didn't blow his cover, but he did blow his cool.

"I told them to go back home and called the dad and said, 'Don't you dare send your kids in here; this stuff is very volatile," Chuck said.

Sting had immediate effect

After nine months, the list of Triple Neck customers was used for a massive raid on a Sunday in March 1989, when 350 officers from state, local and federal agencies raided dozens of homes throughout the county, closing 29 labs and arresting almost 100 people. It still stands as the country's biggest meth raid.

Faced with incriminating videos, 90 percent of the suspects pleaded guilty and the remaining 10 percent were found guilty. Chuck said most were sentenced to 10 to 20 years. The man who sent his kids to buy chemicals pleaded not guilty, he said, and received a stiffer sentence.

Chuck said the operation also revealed, to the surprise of many agents participating in the raids, that meth was no longer just a drug made and used by bikers.

The sting operation, Operation Crankcase, has been criticized because Triple Neck Scientific provided precursors that were turned into methamphetamine used on the streets for nine months. Chuck defended the operation, saying manufacturers would have found their precursors anyway from other sources.

Operation Crankcase had an immediate effect on the county, he said. All measures of the drug's use, from admission rates in rehab centers to urine tests in jails, indicated that the drug's use had decreased.

But Pandora's box was already open. With precursors from San Diego supplied to several other states, meth use began to rise nationally.

"When we took those 100 suspects down, we lost the dubious distinction of being the meth capital of the world," Chuck said. "But sadly, enough of it had spread throughout the United States."


1980s: Meth explodes in San Diego
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:36 AM PDT ∞

Enter first comment.Increase FontDecrease Font email this story print this story For most of its history, methamphetamine had been a second-class drug, never as popular as amphetamines and never as glamorous among drug users as cocaine, heroin or LSD.

Then, about 60 years after it was first created by a Japanese scientist, the drug of choice for outlaw bikers and the rural poor suddenly was being used in Southern California by white-collar workers, young mothers, high school students, nurses, teachers and other seemingly unlikely groups.

The drug's popularity particularly soared in San Diego, which became known to many as the methamphetamine capital of the nation in the 1980s.

Several factors have been associated with the drug's rapid rise in popularity among such broad demographics, but among the most significant was a change in the way methamphetamine was produced.

In 1980, the federal government classified as a controlled substance the chemical phenylacetone, also known as P2P, which until then had been a main ingredient of methamphetamine, which was being made in illicit labs.

Within a year of that new classification, federal Drug Enforcement Agency raids in San Diego were discovering labs making meth with ephedrine, the active ingredient in over-the-counter decongestants. The new meth was easier to make, its ingredients were legal and easy to find, and the drug itself was stronger and more addictive.

San Diego also was in a perfect storm, geographically speaking, for meth use to spread. Since the 1960s, the drug had been distributed in California by the Hells Angels motorcycle club, which was founded north of San Diego County in San Bernardino.

Just to the south, methamphetamine was being made in Mexico, where labs operated with little interference from the law.

Adding to the county's meth explosion, unscrupulous entrepreneurs who saw a booming market opened businesses and started selling the drug's active ingredients, known as precursors, and lab equipment directly to drug manufacturers.

Precursors such as ephedrine, hydriodic acid, red phosphorus and Freon were available at several chemical firms, but two stood out as the biggest supplier for meth labs in the 1980s.

Chuck, a retired undercover officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, remembers those labs well. As an Oceanside Police Department sergeant, he participated in the raid on one of the firms. As an undercover agent with the state Department of Justice, he snared almost 100 meth-makers and shut down 29 labs in the biggest meth bust in history.

Retired since 2003 from a career that included 20 years in the Marines, Chuck sports tattoos, a finely trimmed gray beard, and still rides a Harley-Davidson. A martial-arts expert, he also still has the intense look of a man only a fool would cross.

"Basically, I looked and had to walk and talk the outlaw attitude," he said in a deep gravely voice not unlike actor Sam Elliott's.

The anatomy of meth busts

Chuck was a clean-cut Oceanside police officer from 1972 to 1988, and in his final year on the force helped shut down a chemical company called Quantum on Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad.

Quantum was little more than a convenience store for meth manufacturers, Chuck said. While the business sold only goods that were legal at the time, they broke the law because they knew their products were being used to make an illegal drug.

Chuck said dozens of customers came into Quantum daily, and the business operated for several years before investigators gathered enough evidence to justify a search warrant and a raid in 1988.

"They were shocked," Chuck said about the day he and other officers came through Quantum's front door. "They were sitting there in their shorts."

Quantum's owner fled the country but was arrested years later, Chuck said. Others working in the shop feigned ignorance about how their products were used but were convicted, he said.

Quantum was not the only company capitalizing on San Diego County's new drug problem in the 1980s.

Beginning in 1982, the DEA began investigating RJM Laboratories, another precursor wholesale business.

Operating a cash business with little paperwork, RJM made a difficult target for the DEA, which suspected the company of supplying more than 2,000 meth labs in California, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey and Washington, Frank Owen wrote in his book, "No Speed Limit."

In 1986, RJM owner Robert Miskinis brazenly hired a lobbyist who persuaded lawmakers to delay implementing a bill that required bulk purchases of ephedrines to be reported to the state Department of Justice, Owen wrote. After the media reported that Miskinis had been charged in 1978 with making methamphetamine, embarrassed politicians revoked the delay that they had agreed to earlier.

Two years later, the DEA had built a case and raided three RJM labs, including one in Lakeside, where agents found a 200-liter flask capable of making 80 pounds of meth and enough ephedrine and other chemicals to make 50 tons of the drug.

In 1989, the DEA raided three other chemical houses believed to be owned by Miskinis, including one in Carlsbad that sold assembled meth kits and instruction books.

Miskinis was sentenced to 40 years but served only four after an appeals court decided he was not adequately represented by his attorney, Owen wrote.

Undercover bust nabs nearly 100

Chuck, a state Justice Department agent at the time, said RJM and Quantum appeared to be businesses unique to San Diego County, although he knew of a smaller chemical business in Las Vegas that was investigated by authorities there.

There was one other illicit chemical lab in San Diego County, though, and Chuck was the man behind the counter.

With a gun tucked under his belt and a tape recorder strapped to his back, Chuck worked the back room of Triple Neck Scientific on Magnatron Boulevard in Kearny Mesa for nine months in 1988 and 1989.

With hidden cameras capturing the transactions, Chuck trapped his customers in a well-orchestrated ruse. The business advertised in magazines aimed to attract dealers, and its very name ---- Triple Neck ---- referred to the type of round-bottomed flasks commonly used in meth labs.

Looking every bit as tough as his worst customers, Chuck warned Triple Neck clients to keep an eye out for cops who might spot them coming and going to the business. Meanwhile, he made notes of the license plates of the cars pulling out of his lot.

Chuck also asked customers to bring in the meth they were making, explaining that he wanted to supply some to his friends but didn't want to make it himself. When offered the drug, he declined and said he was a recovering heroin addict who no longer used.

"You didn't pay income tax on any of this, did you?" he would ask his customers selling the drug.

"Hell no!" they would reply with a laugh, oblivious to the hidden cameras that were further incriminating them.

Chuck's act included questioning customers about whether they themselves were actual undercover agents. When a biker turned the tables and patted him on the back and felt his tape recorder, Chuck said it was a concealed gun. The biker asked to see it.

"You'll see my gun only if I need you to see it," Chuck told him. "And it'll be the last thing you ever see."

The biker was satisfied.

But not all customers were hardened bikers. One was a soccer coach, another a nurse, and another was a Neighborhood Watch captain.

Chuck specifically remembers a man who sent his children, ages 10 and 15, into his business to buy chemicals. He didn't blow his cover, but he did blow his cool.

"I told them to go back home and called the dad and said, 'Don't you dare send your kids in here; this stuff is very volatile," Chuck said.

Sting had immediate effect

After nine months, the list of Triple Neck customers was used for a massive raid on a Sunday in March 1989, when 350 officers from state, local and federal agencies raided dozens of homes throughout the county, closing 29 labs and arresting almost 100 people. It still stands as the country's biggest meth raid.

Faced with incriminating videos, 90 percent of the suspects pleaded guilty and the remaining 10 percent were found guilty. Chuck said most were sentenced to 10 to 20 years. The man who sent his kids to buy chemicals pleaded not guilty, he said, and received a stiffer sentence.

Chuck said the operation also revealed, to the surprise of many agents participating in the raids, that meth was no longer just a drug made and used by bikers.

The sting operation, Operation Crankcase, has been criticized because Triple Neck Scientific provided precursors that were turned into methamphetamine used on the streets for nine months. Chuck defended the operation, saying manufacturers would have found their precursors anyway from other sources.

Operation Crankcase had an immediate effect on the county, he said. All measures of the drug's use, from admission rates in rehab centers to urine tests in jails, indicated that the drug's use had decreased.

But Pandora's box was already open. With precursors from San Diego supplied to several other states, meth use began to rise nationally.

"When we took those 100 suspects down, we lost the dubious distinction of being the meth capital of the world," Chuck said. "But sadly, enough of it had spread throughout the United States."


1980s: Meth explodes in San Diego
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Sunday, September 16, 2007 12:36 AM PDT ∞

Enter first comment.Increase FontDecrease Font email this story print this story For most of its history, methamphetamine had been a second-class drug, never as popular as amphetamines and never as glamorous among drug users as cocaine, heroin or LSD.

Then, about 60 years after it was first created by a Japanese scientist, the drug of choice for outlaw bikers and the rural poor suddenly was being used in Southern California by white-collar workers, young mothers, high school students, nurses, teachers and other seemingly unlikely groups.

The drug's popularity particularly soared in San Diego, which became known to many as the methamphetamine capital of the nation in the 1980s.

Several factors have been associated with the drug's rapid rise in popularity among such broad demographics, but among the most significant was a change in the way methamphetamine was produced.

In 1980, the federal government classified as a controlled substance the chemical phenylacetone, also known as P2P, which until then had been a main ingredient of methamphetamine, which was being made in illicit labs.

Within a year of that new classification, federal Drug Enforcement Agency raids in San Diego were discovering labs making meth with ephedrine, the active ingredient in over-the-counter decongestants. The new meth was easier to make, its ingredients were legal and easy to find, and the drug itself was stronger and more addictive.

San Diego also was in a perfect storm, geographically speaking, for meth use to spread. Since the 1960s, the drug had been distributed in California by the Hells Angels motorcycle club, which was founded north of San Diego County in San Bernardino.

Just to the south, methamphetamine was being made in Mexico, where labs operated with little interference from the law.

Adding to the county's meth explosion, unscrupulous entrepreneurs who saw a booming market opened businesses and started selling the drug's active ingredients, known as precursors, and lab equipment directly to drug manufacturers.

Precursors such as ephedrine, hydriodic acid, red phosphorus and Freon were available at several chemical firms, but two stood out as the biggest supplier for meth labs in the 1980s.

Chuck, a retired undercover officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity, remembers those labs well. As an Oceanside Police Department sergeant, he participated in the raid on one of the firms. As an undercover agent with the state Department of Justice, he snared almost 100 meth-makers and shut down 29 labs in the biggest meth bust in history.

Retired since 2003 from a career that included 20 years in the Marines, Chuck sports tattoos, a finely trimmed gray beard, and still rides a Harley-Davidson. A martial-arts expert, he also still has the intense look of a man only a fool would cross.

"Basically, I looked and had to walk and talk the outlaw attitude," he said in a deep gravely voice not unlike actor Sam Elliott's.

The anatomy of meth busts

Chuck was a clean-cut Oceanside police officer from 1972 to 1988, and in his final year on the force helped shut down a chemical company called Quantum on Palomar Airport Road in Carlsbad.

Quantum was little more than a convenience store for meth manufacturers, Chuck said. While the business sold only goods that were legal at the time, they broke the law because they knew their products were being used to make an illegal drug.

Chuck said dozens of customers came into Quantum daily, and the business operated for several years before investigators gathered enough evidence to justify a search warrant and a raid in 1988.

"They were shocked," Chuck said about the day he and other officers came through Quantum's front door. "They were sitting there in their shorts."

Quantum's owner fled the country but was arrested years later, Chuck said. Others working in the shop feigned ignorance about how their products were used but were convicted, he said.

Quantum was not the only company capitalizing on San Diego County's new drug problem in the 1980s.

Beginning in 1982, the DEA began investigating RJM Laboratories, another precursor wholesale business.

Operating a cash business with little paperwork, RJM made a difficult target for the DEA, which suspected the company of supplying more than 2,000 meth labs in California, Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey and Washington, Frank Owen wrote in his book, "No Speed Limit."

In 1986, RJM owner Robert Miskinis brazenly hired a lobbyist who persuaded lawmakers to delay implementing a bill that required bulk purchases of ephedrines to be reported to the state Department of Justice, Owen wrote. After the media reported that Miskinis had been charged in 1978 with making methamphetamine, embarrassed politicians revoked the delay that they had agreed to earlier.

Two years later, the DEA had built a case and raided three RJM labs, including one in Lakeside, where agents found a 200-liter flask capable of making 80 pounds of meth and enough ephedrine and other chemicals to make 50 tons of the drug.

In 1989, the DEA raided three other chemical houses believed to be owned by Miskinis, including one in Carlsbad that sold assembled meth kits and instruction books.

Miskinis was sentenced to 40 years but served only four after an appeals court decided he was not adequately represented by his attorney, Owen wrote.

Undercover bust nabs nearly 100

Chuck, a state Justice Department agent at the time, said RJM and Quantum appeared to be businesses unique to San Diego County, although he knew of a smaller chemical business in Las Vegas that was investigated by authorities there.

There was one other illicit chemical lab in San Diego County, though, and Chuck was the man behind the counter.

With a gun tucked under his belt and a tape recorder strapped to his back, Chuck worked the back room of Triple Neck Scientific on Magnatron Boulevard in Kearny Mesa for nine months in 1988 and 1989.

With hidden cameras capturing the transactions, Chuck trapped his customers in a well-orchestrated ruse. The business advertised in magazines aimed to attract dealers, and its very name ---- Triple Neck ---- referred to the type of round-bottomed flasks commonly used in meth labs.

Looking every bit as tough as his worst customers, Chuck warned Triple Neck clients to keep an eye out for cops who might spot them coming and going to the business. Meanwhile, he made notes of the license plates of the cars pulling out of his lot.

Chuck also asked customers to bring in the meth they were making, explaining that he wanted to supply some to his friends but didn't want to make it himself. When offered the drug, he declined and said he was a recovering heroin addict who no longer used.

"You didn't pay income tax on any of this, did you?" he would ask his customers selling the drug.

"Hell no!" they would reply with a laugh, oblivious to the hidden cameras that were further incriminating them.

Chuck's act included questioning customers about whether they themselves were actual undercover agents. When a biker turned the tables and patted him on the back and felt his tape recorder, Chuck said it was a concealed gun. The biker asked to see it.

"You'll see my gun only if I need you to see it," Chuck told him. "And it'll be the last thing you ever see."

The biker was satisfied.

But not all customers were hardened bikers. One was a soccer coach, another a nurse, and another was a Neighborhood Watch captain.

Chuck specifically remembers a man who sent his children, ages 10 and 15, into his business to buy chemicals. He didn't blow his cover, but he did blow his cool.

"I told them to go back home and called the dad and said, 'Don't you dare send your kids in here; this stuff is very volatile," Chuck said.

Sting had immediate effect

After nine months, the list of Triple Neck customers was used for a massive raid on a Sunday in March 1989, when 350 officers from state, local and federal agencies raided dozens of homes throughout the county, closing 29 labs and arresting almost 100 people. It still stands as the country's biggest meth raid.

Faced with incriminating videos, 90 percent of the suspects pleaded guilty and the remaining 10 percent were found guilty. Chuck said most were sentenced to 10 to 20 years. The man who sent his kids to buy chemicals pleaded not guilty, he said, and received a stiffer sentence.

Chuck said the operation also revealed, to the surprise of many agents participating in the raids, that meth was no longer just a drug made and used by bikers.

The sting operation, Operation Crankcase, has been criticized because Triple Neck Scientific provided precursors that were turned into methamphetamine used on the streets for nine months. Chuck defended the operation, saying manufacturers would have found their precursors anyway from other sources.

Operation Crankcase had an immediate effect on the county, he said. All measures of the drug's use, from admission rates in rehab centers to urine tests in jails, indicated that the drug's use had decreased.

But Pandora's box was already open. With precursors from San Diego supplied to several other states, meth use began to rise nationally.

"When we took those 100 suspects down, we lost the dubious distinction of being the meth capital of the world," Chuck said. "But sadly, enough of it had spread throughout the United States."


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007..._469_16_07.txt

I believe the link is here:

http://www.leeharvey.net/documentaries/FRAMESET.html

Nice link, welcome to the wonderful world of mexmeth. You can thank San Diego for this.

Point is even though many cities have claimed the title of meth capital over the last 10 years, San Diego has had a vibrant meth scene that goes back rouphly 60 years, even before the "meth is a primarily west coast phenomena" era circa late 60s-early 90s. Interestingly the DEA upgraded San Diego's status from "meth capital" to "source nation" in the 90s. Having said that, seems to be a decrease in availability lately from people I've talked to around my neighborhood (OB) and from new commers in NA. Anybody else notice this?

On the topic of "meth capital" being self bestowed by several cities, including places in the Midwest and Northwest who had legitimate claims to the title here is a discussion from the drudge report discussing the Matanuska valley. This is traditionally an agricultural area and has become a bedroom community in recent years. Also the home of the legendary "Matanuska Valley Thunderfuck" strain of cannabis. A couple of years ago they were calling themselves the meth capital. I know it lived up to its reputation because I have relatives that lived in the valley around that time and Eagle River which I think is between there and Anchorage. They claim there was a tweeker around every Igloo. Here is a transcript from a local forum.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Wasilla: Alaska's Meth Capital
WASILLA - The Matanuska-Susitna area is the methamphetamine capital of Alaska, according to Alaska State Troopers.


In 2003, authorities uncovered nine meth labs in the area. Last year, the number increased to 42, said Kyle Young, an investigator with the troopers who works with the Mat-Su narcotics team.


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That makes sense...pit bulls and meth go well together.



Posted by Angrydad at 2008-09-06 02:10 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


Geez I thought San Diego had that title?



So there is crime in AK..

Posted by MURPHY at 2008-09-06 02:25 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


There goes Diddy's crackhead theory...

Posted by American1st at 2008-09-06 02:27 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


Democrats and Republicans should both be pleased by this news, in fact, Gov. Palin should use this as a talking point:


The enterprising citizens of Walrusilla are involved in a burgeoning cottage industry. Rather than turning to those commies in Columbia and Venezuela or the terrorists in Afghanistan for their narcotics needs, these brave patriots in Alaska indulge only in illegal drugs stamped "Made in America".
Posted by Sarcasmo at 2008-09-06 03:01 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


Meth is filling the void created when Palin and her secessionist pals smoked Matanuska Thunderfuck into extinction.

Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2008-09-06 03:08 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


This proves that Palin will be uniquely qualified to deal with the nation's drug problem.


The Right.

Posted by BlueInBushland at 2008-09-06 03:14 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


what else you gonna do in bumfucked alaska?

Posted by goblinsrreal2 at 2008-09-06 08:06 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


Alaska is the capital of yellow snow.

Posted by grumpy_too at 2008-09-06 08:18 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


I wonder what percentage of each operation she gets?

Posted by frankf55 at 2008-09-06 09:49 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


But Diddy said there were no crackheads there.


/wrong again

Posted by shirtsbyeric at 2008-09-06 11:06 PM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


eric - p. diddlysquat made an apology for that lie. his peeps have made sure it's EVERYWHERE!

Posted by nanc at 2008-09-07 01:09 AM | Reply | Flag: Flag: (Choose)FunnyNewsworthyOffensiveAbusive


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Comments are closed for this entry.

http://www.drudge.com/archive/112017...s-meth-capital

Having posted this, I have 10 months clean. The other day I found my long, lost pipe and got the jones for some shards, this is in part why I've had my recent obsession with posting/ reading about meth. Was unsuccessful in finding some looking in all the usual tweekspots, which ultimately was probably a good thing because I got to keep my clean time.:\ I guess a local drought or just not much activity at normal spots. Anyone else notice a drought in southern CA/ San Diego area?

History lesson- Latest meth use is on the upswing again in SD

One thing I didn't do is go to TJ which has a huge open air market- glad i didn't relapse back then in retrospect. But I hear that in some brothels hooker will bring a pipe loaded with tweak and a lighter before getting down.

At any rate history in brief:

1.) Taste for meth broght by troops returning from Japan, they left a trial of meth scenes in American possessions like Guam, Marshall Island (now semi-independent ex US trust territory), Hawaii (more Ice than colorado), and San Diego.

2.) Alot got jobs making missles and in other defense related industries which used to be big in the cold war (now a shadow of itself) and got Rx

3.) Starting in the late 60s a cottage industry formed supplying tweakers, centered especially in the eastern hills surounding San diego.

4.) They got rolled up in 89' by infiltrating laboratory supply houses that would sell chemicals with manuals on how to produce.

5.) The Mexicans moved in and opened superlabs making dextro Meth of higher quality.

6..) After an interuption and closing down labs, they moved labs across the border.

7.) Tweak is still around, local news recently said their was a sharp increase in use or seizures lately- been seeing more people comming into meetings with meth problems but heroin is the number drug of choice among this demographic.

8.) The DEA once listed San diego as a "Source country for meth" much like they would Colombia for Coke and/or heroin. o much was being produced in the area.

9.) Any comments on the history current or in the past appretiated.




makes it easier for everyone to read
 
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I'm in North Orange County, and the meth is flowing and flowing well. I don't even like or do the shit but its everywhere I turn, so I don't see a drought happening in So Cal.
 
My Grandfather in the early 40's was stationed in san diego for a while and as a US soldier ,he was given "pep pills" while overseas fighting in the Pacific during WW2, these "pep pills" were I think Dextroamphetamine ,but they were "speed" anyway,just not methamphetamine.Also A guy I know who was in Vietnam war,said we he came home from Vietnam in the early 70's ,most soldiers were into the China White in Vietnam and smuggled some back into San Diego,but he said he prefered Meth,which was apparently given to US troops in Vietnam like Vitamins,and went he got back to San Diego in the early 70's he stayed around and bought meth from bikers etc... and then he moved back to Philly,were he would stay and use heroin,but would often come out to San Diego up until the late 1980's to but meth and take it to Philly,we he said he "was the only black dude in his Philly area that like crank aka meth" ,and that "all the other brothers in the hood like that heroin and crack "..anyway just a little history of military amphetamine use,althouhg not much..
 
^They give air force pilots dexedrine.

Meth is such a gay drug, it makes you fucking crazy.

Yeah they still do,also in Vietnam and WW2 the US gave soldiers on the ground amphetamines ,although not like the Nazis ,who gave out large amounts of methamphetamine to troops.Also the Japnese pilots were given huge doses of meth in tea before going on a kamikazie suicide mission, they were so tweeked out they did not give a shit,and would have most likely OD'd had they not crashed into US ships or tried to..In my PDR it shows the Dexedrine spansules 5mg capsule for "Air Force" use printed right there in the book!! lol,apprently they only get the 5mg Dexedrine Time realesed spansule capsules,but most likely they take several at once..
 
Thanks for organizing my thread shake. From what I hear, meth supply and use is on the upswing again, although nowadays it comes from mexico, in the 90s the DEA listed San Diego as a "source nation" for meth just like Colombia is one for coke and heroin or aphganistan and opium/heroin. It is rummored that there is a "meth cook university" run by one of the cartels in mexico because all cooks in different parts of mexico come from this one town and it supposedly has yet to be infiltrated. About what DK427 said, the USA was using dexedrine in the first Gulf War for pilots and might still continue this practice.
 
About what DK427 said, the USA was using dexedrine in the first Gulf War for pilots and might still continue this practice.

I believe that this practice is still in use, at least as of a few years ago, although they may have switched over to provigil. A friend in the air force was telling me that on missions pilots are sometimes given a stimulant, along with a benzo of some kind to take when the mission is over.
 
Palli;
I believe that this practice is still in use, at least as of a few years ago, although they may have switched over to provigil. A friend in the air force was telling me that on missions pilots are sometimes given a stimulant, along with a benzo of some kind to take when the mission is over.

I know the French airforce has used provigil for several years but i believe they pioneered the drug. Wouldn't bee su[rised if it has suplanted dexedrine as the drug of choice.
 
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