Wednesday, April 12, 2000
City's first known methamphetamine lab broken up
BY Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Undercover drug agents have broken up what is thought to be Cincinnati's first methamphetamine lab.
Authorities have predicted for several years that meth would begin trickling into the Tristate. They found it being made late Monday night in a shed behind a Fairmount house. Neighbors had complained about a smell coming from the vacant building.
Five people, three of them family members, were arrested.
“We have expected it,” said Lt. Ray Ruberg, Cincinnati Police spokesman. “It's unfortunate that we have this occuring in a residential neighborhood.”
It was the third Tristate meth lab bust in the past several months. Covington officers found one last month, and another was discovered in Boone County recently, said Jerry Byrd, intelligence analyst for the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force.
“It's slowly creeping through here,” he said.
Arrested and jailed on Tuesday: David McDonald, 40, and Martin McDonald, 18, both of Cleves; Gary McDonald, 38, and Tina Bakken, 28, both of Sayler Park; and David Earls, 31, of Fairmount.
Gary and David McDonald, as well as Ms. Bakken, face charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs. Few details were available about the allegations because their indictments were sealed.
The other two were being held pending the filing of federal charges.
The McDonalds all are related, but police officials weren't certain how.
To remove the lab, police called in an Evansville, Ind., firm that specializes in envi ronmental cleanups.
Cincinnati officers had been working on the case for some time and made their move Monday night because they got a tip someone on the property, Lt. Ruberg said.
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