Linda meth lab shut down

A methamphetamine lab raided Monday in Linda was far from the biggest ever found in the area but apparently had been operating for years, authorities said.

State Department of Justice laboratory workers in white hazardous-material suits spent the late afternoon and evening hours removing meth-making equipment from a house at the dead end of Redwood Avenue, just below Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

The Yuba County Sheriff’s Department was searching for the house’s occupant, 50-year-old Russell Robert Baker, who was not there when officers arrived.

“By all indications, this has been a house of activity for a number of years,” said Sheriff Steve Durfor.

Undersheriff Jerry Read described the lab as “user and small-time dealer-sized.”

The raid was a collaborative effort between Durfor’s department and the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team, or NET-5.

“This was a full meth lab. We’re still trying to figure out how much is in there,” said NET-5 agent Jason Parker.

Some equipment was found buried in the backyard near a small marijuana garden, said Parker.

A neighbor, Sam Thornsberry, said traffic in and out of the house had been regular for years.

“They’d be in there five or 10 minutes and then they’d be gone,” said Thornsberry, a 12-year Redwood Avenue resident. “It was always the same old cars.”

“It should be a quiet street, you know?” he said.

The house is mostly obscured by bushes and trees. Baker’s name is painted in bright colors on a mailbox in front.

Durfor said his department’s goal is finding labs quicker.

“We’re organizing ourselves to respond in a more timely fashion to complaints from the community,” he said.

Meth labs “are bringing down the quality of life for people who are working hard and raising families,” said Durfor.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young can be reached at 749-4710. You may e-mail him at ryoung@appeal-democrat.com.