Saturday, July 01, 2000
Police raid lab where drug was cooked; three arrested
By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HARLAN TOWNSHIP — About 1,000 feet from rural Ohio 28 just inside Warren County, Lori and Phillip McMullen and a friend were cooking up methamphetamines in an old farmhouse they shared with their three children, police said Friday.
In the county's first-ever raid on a methamphetamine lab, the McMullens and Joseph Lester Wiggins were jailed after more than 50 officers raided the property at 9754 Ohio 28 Thursday evening.
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METH RISKY TO MAKE
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Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that can be manufactured using products commercially available anywhere in the United States.
The stimulant effects from methamphetamine can last for hours, instead of minutes as with crack cocaine.
As is the case with heroin and cocaine, methamphetamine can be snorted, smoked or injected.
The chemicals used in producing methamphetamine are extremely volatile, and the amateur chemists running makeshift laboratories can cause deadly explosions and fires.
Source: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy
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John Burke, head of the Warren County Drug Task Force, said discovery of the illicit and risky home business is proof that the drug's popularity is creeping closer.
“It's hitting us. We've got several labs going in Warren County and adjoining counties. Clermont County does too. We have intelligence that indicates that,” Mr. Burke said.
Methamphetamine, also called meth, crank and ice, is popular because it gives a quick high and can be made relatively inexpensively using household chemicals and over-the-counter cold medications.
Labs, many in rural areas where detection is less of a risk, have sprung up from the West Coast into the Midwest as the drug's popularity increases.
State officials called the bust significant.
“A number of task forces know (the drugs) are there because they run into people using it. But getting to a source like that is significant,” said Tyree Broomfield, senior law enforcement analyst for the Ohio Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Services.
Since mid-1997, 33 multijurisdictional drug task forces in Ohio have raided about five methamphetamine labs, said Mr. Broomfield.
A tip from the Clermont County Narcotics Unit led the Warren County task force to the McMullen residence, where an undercover agent bought one gram from the couple for $100 earlier Thursday, Mr. Burke said.
By 5:30 p.m. Thursday, a Hamilton County sheriff's helicopter circled as SWAT teams from Warren and Clermont counties, and local, state and federal drug agents descended on the isolated property, which is surrounded by trees and open fields.
From the house and a trailer where Mr. Wiggins stayed, authorities confiscated a cache of 57 guns — the majority of them loaded Tec 9s — about 10 grams of methamphetamine that tested 90 percent pure, roughly a pound of marijuana, and $4,000 in cash, Mr. Burke said.
Hundreds of empty bottles of an over-the-counter sinus medication were found, along with beakers, hot plates and other cooking equipment, he said. No other chemicals were found, but Mr. Burke said the three suspects have admitted manufacturing the drug.
Seven people, including one of McMullens' three children, a 12-year-old boy, were present during the raid. The boy was turned over to the county children's services agency, Mr. Burke said.
The couple's other children, described by neighbors as about 10 and 8, were not home at the time. Still, police may charge the McMullens with child endangering, Mr. Burke said.
The McMullens and Mr. Wiggins each are charged with a single count of illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, a felony that could land them in prison for up to eight years.
Mr. Wiggins, 36, also faces two charges of unlawful possession of a dangerous ordnance for two loaded shotguns that were allegedly found in his trailer.
They are being held in the Warren County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bonds each, and are expected to appear for arraignment in Warren County Court on Thursday.
Police weren't sure Friday how much of the methamphetamine was being sold. The 10 grams had a street value of at least $1,000.
As police spent most of Friday searching 55 junk vehicles on the property, people who lived and worked in the area were surprised to hear about the raid.
Many said they didn't know much about the McMullens or Mr. Wiggins.
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