Meth Labs Popping Up Everywhere
KALAMAZOO (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A disturbing trend in Kalamazoo County is even coming as a shock to police.
Drug officers are dealing with a drastic increase in meth lab calls. In fact, Newschannel 3 went along with police as they raided one home earlier Friday night located on Dayton Avenue in Kalamazoo Township.
Police say, in three months they've busted almost as many meth labs as they did in all of last year and it's not just a fluke.
The Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team is seeing a real explosion in one-pot meth labs, like the one that was seized at the home in Kalamazoo Township. The cooks can do it all in something as small as that two-liter soda bottle.
The four suspects inside the Kalamazoo Township home were handcuffed and got a ride in police cruisers. But long before Friday night, neighbor Chris Tyson suspected drugs.
"Just a lot of traffic in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, just nonstop," said Tyson.
When KVET came knocking Friday night, they found the four cooking meth in the basement.
"This was another shake and bake or one-pot method, we've just been overwhelmed with these labs lately," said Sgt. David Boysen of the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team.
In this case, it wasn't a pot, but a soda bottle. KVET says the method is quick and mobile, with household fertilizer replacing the anhydrous ammonia stolen from local farmers.
"So they've gone from several hours to 30 minutes," said Sgt. Boysen.
Drug officers find many of these easy to move meth labs in cars. They say there, the chemicals in a confined space can act like a moving bomb.
"The potential of that exploding is very hazardous," said Sgt. Boysen.
But in Friday nights bust the drug officers say the cooking was hidden away.
But Chris Tyson, a father of two, wishes more people along Dayton Avenue had talked.
"Yeah, very concerned, I don't like it one bit," said Tyson.
Just looking at this meth user, he knows what the drug can do in a year's time and what it's doing to Kalamazoo.
"People might want to hide it, but there's nothing to hide, it's definitely out here, all through the neighborhoods.
KVET Officers handled 27 meth labs in all of 2007. With this one Friday night, they're up to 18 in less than three months of 2008.
