The black hole

Got meth? Yuba-Sutter certainly does. Consider these recently published stories:

• Three generations of a family — a 49-year-old woman, her 65-year-old mother and her 21-year-old son — arrested on suspicion of selling methamphetamine from an East Linda apartment.

• A 50-year-old man with a prison record busted for allegedly selling meth from his Shanghai Bend Road home to support his heroin habit.

• A Norteños gang member had a loaded shotgun — and his 3-year-old son — in the car as he set off to sell methamphetamine. n A 47-year-old woman caught allegedly distributing meth by hiding it under her breasts.

"Crank," "ice," "tweak," "speed" — whatever name it goes by, meth is a seductive, highly addictive drug used and abused by people across the socioeconomic spectrum. One California lawmaker recently called it "the most dangerous, debilitating, destructive drug on the street today." Locally, meth is believed to account for more than 90 percent of the violent, drug-related crimes in Yuba-Sutter.

In a three-day Appeal-Democrat series starting today, we focus on three major aspects of the local meth scourge: changes in the sources and distribution of the drug; local education efforts to combat meth use and addiction; and meth's impact on families and communities.

In today's first installment, reporter Rob Young details how homegrown meth has largely given way to product manufactured and distributed out of California's Central Valley and Mexico:

Three men found shot to death in March in an East Linda apartment are evidence that methamphetamine, still Yuba-Sutter's illegal drug of choice, is no longer a homegrown product.

The murder victims — Manuel Robles-Basurto and brothers Jesus and Jose Arreguin-Cardenas — were part of a West Coast meth distribution network, according to Yuba County District Attorney Pat McGrath.

While law enforcement agencies still find an occasional "user-sized" meth lab in a house or apartment, or even in a vehicle, much of the meth plaguing Yuba-Sutter comes from "super labs" in the Central Valley or Mexico, authorities say.

"Typical meth deals now involve tens of thousands of dollars and multi-pound amounts of product," said McGrath. "A typical large buy may involve producers in Mexico using a middleman seller from the Central Valley selling to buyers from Oregon or Washington.

"The triple homicide was related to such a transaction," he said.

Suspects have been named in the incident, which left bullet holes in a wall and window and blood-soaked carpets at the apartment in the 1400 block of North Beale Road, but no one has been brought to trial.

Large quantities of meth brought into Yuba-Sutter, sometimes by heavily armed gang members, may be an unintended consequence of new laws limiting how much pseudoephedrine local manufacturers can buy at pharmacies. Pseudoephedrine, found in cough and cold medicines, is a crucial ingredient in the modern meth-making process.

Mike Hudson, commander of the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team, or NET-5, since late 2007 and a special agent supervisor for the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said the number of labs found by NET-5 has plummeted from 64 in 2004 — one of the state's highest seizure rates — to just three through April of this year.

Pseudoephedrine is readily available in Mexico, one reason cartels there have become the source of most meth sold in California, said Hudson.

The switch from local labs to Mexican cartels has dramatically affected Yuba-Sutter's drug scene.

"Yuba-Sutter is no longer a rural area. We've grown up into a big-city area when it comes to drugs, on a par with Sacramento, Oakland and Fresno," said Hudson.

Failing to recognize and address the problem "will mean the community's going to suffer," he said.

Meth-related crimes are on the rise, and more than 90 percent of violent, drug-related crimes in Yuba and Sutter counties involve meth, he said.

"Our communities are living with the consequences of the increased criminal activity — a decrease in public safety, community image and quality of life."

While Yuba County occasionally has been called the state's "meth capital," distribution of the drug here is probably no worse than in other counties of the same size, said Hudson.

The number of meth addicts per thousand people, however, is more like that found in a big city, he said.

Hispanic gangs are the main traffickers of meth in Yuba-Sutter, followed by black and Asian gangs, Hudson said.

Motorcycle gangs pioneered the manufacture and distribution of meth a half-century ago and are still involved, but not as much as in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Hell's Angels, for example, have turned more to marijuana sales, he said.

In the mid-1980s, McGrath recalled, Yuba County meth manufacturers usually numbered less than 10. Some had ties to biker gangs.

"The process to make meth was both labor and equipment intensive — the actual labs sometimes reminded you of what you would see in a Frankenstein movie — and a really successful cook would give you maybe a pound of product," McGrath said.

"The process was smelly and unstable and occasionally resulted in explosions," he said.

Two decades later, pseudoephedrine simplified the process.

"You could now make meth using a relatively simple, easy-to-follow formula, easily obtained or purchased chemicals, and literally two Big Gulp cups and some surgical tubing," McGrath said.

Suddenly, he said, it seemed like everybody had their own, compact meth lab — often called a suitcase lab. Instead of 10 or 12 big labs being busted each year, 30 or 40 small ones were found.

The next big change occurred when gangs turned their attention from cocaine and heroin to meth.

"These groups used their business skills and already-established trafficking organization to literally take over the production and distribution of meth, McGrath said.

Using chemicals purchased on the international market in commercial amounts, a single cook in a Central Valley or Mexican super lab can turn out tens of pounds at a time, he said.

"Meth is distributed as if it was a commercial product — efficiently and in volume," the district attorney said.

The switch to imported meth comes with a price. An ounce of meth that recently sold for between $600 and $800 now costs $1,000 to $1,300, said Hudson.

The price increase will lead to a resurgence in local production despite the difficulty of obtaining pseudoephedrine, he predicted.

In a practice known as "smurfing," manufacturers or their friends go from store to store in search of cough and cold medicines, purchasing the legal limit of two at a time.

Some Yuba-Sutter meth users are turning to Mexican tar heroin, which sells for less than meth in some cases. The sticky, dark brown or black substance is melted, then injected.

Crystal meth, the most common type of meth found locally for the past year or so, is smoked.

Even some newer varieties of marijuana, so potent they can cause hallucinations, are being substituted for meth by some addicts, according to Hudson.

Facts about meth:

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive central nervous system stimulant that can be injected, snorted, smoked, or ingested orally. Methamphetamine users feel a short yet intense "rush" when the drug is initially administered.

The drug produces a state of increased energy, suppressed appetite and elevated mood; effects may last as long as 10 to 12 hours vs. 45 minutes obtained from cocaine. Methamphetamine has limited medical uses for the treatment of narcolepsy, attention deficit disorders, and obesity.

Long-term methamphetamine abuse can cause addiction, anxiety, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent behavior. Additionally, psychotic symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions can occur.

The drug is easy to make with ingredients consisting of household chemicals and over-the-counter medications. It is also extremely dangerous to make because "meth labs" are prone to explosions and the fumes of the chemicals combined can enter the body through open cavities of nonusers.

— Sources: Office of National Drug Control Policy (http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/) and California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (http://www.adp.ca.gov/Meth/facts.shtml)

Local labs

Small meth labs found by the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team

2003 45

2004 64

2005 34

2006 19

2007 10

2008 3 (through April)

Source: NET-5

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com