Meth Lab Discovered in Posh New York Penthouse
EmailAuthorities say a posh penthouse apartment overlooking the United Nations in midtown Manhattan was the site of an illegal lab producing methamphetamine for a drug ring involving a bank executive and a university grad student. The Citibank executive and Columbia University teaching assistant along with auto mechanics employed by one of the city’s largest car dealerships were among those arrested yesterday after being charged with producing methamphetamine in nine laboratories scattered throughout New York City and Long Island. Manufactured in style at a penthouse apartment overlooking the United Nations, in work bays at the Potamkin Mitsubishi car dealership and in bedrooms on Long Island, federal agents seized manufactured methamphetamine along with hundreds of grams of restricted chemicals, including red phosphorus and iodine, that are key ingredients in the the manufacture of the highly addictive drug. The shutdown of the nine operational laboratories as well as yesterday’s arrest of seven individuals in the investigation dubbed "Operation Red Fusion" is a first for New York City, federal sources tell ABC News. The last and only federal seizure of a meth lab in New York was back in 2002. THE BLOTTER RECOMMENDS Photos Crackdown Nets Stylish Meth Labs 11-Year-Old Heroin Addicts: A Shocking Texas Phenomenon Click Here to Check Out Who’s Blowing Hot, Cool and Smoke on the Brian Ross Homepage After the nine labs were raided, agents assigned to the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Clandestine Laboratory Team oversaw the cleanup of the labs, which produce highly toxic wastes as a byproduct. "Methamphetamine poses a double threat because it places not only the drug abuser at risk, but the public at large each time the drug is produced, especially in a densely-populated area such as New York City and its suburbs," said Roslynn Mauskopf, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where seven of the defendants had their initial court appearances yesterday. "Methamphetamine is the ‘crack’ of the 21st century," added Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, who headed Operation Red Fusion in Long Island. "It can have lethal effects at any time from production to ingestion. Toxic waste is created producing it and ruined lives are the result of abusing it." If convicted of the federal offenses with which they are charged, the defendants, who acted independently, each face a maximum of 10 to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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just an fyi for the editors- it’s the ‘Drug Enforcement Administration’, not the ‘Drug Enforcement Agency’.
Posted by: observer | November 30, 2006, 4:53 pm 4:53 pm
the gov couldn’t stop amphetamine sulphate in tbe 90′s when meth was the trash drug so what make them think they can now I retract they made key ingredients illegall to own but legal to buy maybe they will figure out meth it’s been around just as long
Posted by: steve | November 30, 2006, 5:48 pm 5:48 pm
who will lobby congress against the massive Pfizer to make Sudafed only obtainable by perscription only?! isn’t that the number one way these people make this stuff? by extracting the pseudoephedrine hydrochloride? this crap just ruins lives…so sad.
Posted by: tom | November 30, 2006, 6:50 pm 6:50 pm
In the western half of the USA, meth is made and controlled mainly by the Mexican mafia, who learned long ago that the easiest way to get the main precursor chemical for methamphetamine is to grow it… Ephedera is a weed that will grow prolifically on scrubland, and the extraction of ephederine from it is a simple process. The answer to the meth epidemic is education of our young people: Truth, not propaganda. On one hand, meth is a scourge on our people; on the other hand, it is naught but chlorine in the gene pool.
Posted by: goat | November 30, 2006, 8:37 pm 8:37 pm
I don’t think it would be wise or even possible to make Sudafed a prescription drug. Uninsured people like myself would have to pay out-of-pocket to a doctor to get sinus relief? No way.
It IS very sad, though – meth is a very destructive drug. I remember in Hawaii in the late 80′s, early 90′s use went sky high. Supposedly, labs in the Phillipines were making it and shipping it to the islands en masse.
These guys that were profiting off the ruined lives of others should get real time, and their bank accounts should be wiped clean…
Posted by: JT | December 1, 2006, 10:49 am 10:49 am
It appears that the federal govenment just spent some millions of dollars to catch 10 personal use meth cooks.
Your tax dollars at work, ha. The money would have been much better spent on border interdiction efforts.
Posted by: Dave | December 1, 2006, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
I would like to share with you a different perspective. I have been a meth user for 15 years. I will concede that it is unhealthy, potentially dangerous, and that my addiction has posed me some challenges. However, I have a successful career, I am very healthy and in excellent shape, I am an honest, nonviolent person, and I have reasonably well adjusted human relationships.
I am not excusing my poor decision, but I am saying that when our perceptions are framed by hype and propaganda, we often see only the evidence which supports the predetermined conclusion. People need to stop scapegoating drugs. The actual causes of many of the devastating effects that correlate with meth use are lousy people who blame the drug for their lack of character, the punitive response of the law, and social stigma (the self fulfilling prophecy effect).
Whenever something is wrong in our culture we look for the witches, rather than keeping things honest and simple. People need to be held accountable for their actions towards others, period, with little or no consideration for their “sanity,” what drug they were on, or what priest abused them when they were 12. To me it would seem seriously unfair if I were arrested for possession and served the same sentence as someone who raped another human being.
Posted by: MC | December 1, 2006, 9:52 pm 9:52 pm
My biggest problem with meth is that it is artificially made and toxic waste is created as a bi product. Because of the toxicity of the synthesis of the drug, people who want nothing to do with it will become affected by it health wise should they live adjacent to the lab.
How can people who make meth dispose of the waste properly?
Posted by: piratehat | December 6, 2006, 11:33 pm 11:33 pm
Legalizing all drugs will eventually solve the problem. Cheney and his cronies steal billions and the band plays on. “Look over here..”
Posted by: Joe | December 9, 2006, 10:56 am 10:56 am
spain to subpoena cia flight crew
Posted by: zato | January 5, 2007, 7:34 am 7:34 am
thanks Bill Clinton its nice to know that 5-grams of crack carries the same sentence as running a meth production facility that is a danger to thse public at large
Posted by: dwight b | January 22, 2008, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
i am a recovering addict that has been clean for 2 years now . i have been to prison,lost both of my children & was pronounced dead then sent to a mental facility before i reached the decision to change. i was in active addiction for 25 years & started using when i was 11. i’ve cooked, dealt,trafficed, robbed, stole,lied & sold my soul to the devil for the almighty high from meth. i write this to say only this- that when enough’s enough -it will be enough but not until then. i have got my life back in order but not without the help of rehab & 12-step meetings.i believe meth is satan’s drug & nothing good can ever come out of it !!! i would trade ALL the money i have ever made just to have my children back.i am grateful today that i am clean & alive !!! meth could never have given me that HOPE !!!
Posted by: traci chapman | March 23, 2008, 5:15 am 5:15 am
see if people were doing there job u will not have this problem. or if the goverment takes care of the people like he or she should
Posted by: arron | April 21, 2008, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
what would all those meth cops do for work if meth was gone today.probably become cigarette cops.what would they do with money appropiated for meth war if meth were gone today?probably give raises to theirselves.they have been fighting meth since 1950′s by : hiring more police,increasing taxes,getting more& better hi-tech(toys)tools,etc.etc.etc.,take away these$$$and you would see a dramatic drop in the meth problem???!!!
Posted by: danny | August 4, 2008, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm