SoCal county remains nation's meth capital

The report was compiled by the Inland Narcotics Clearing House, which assembles methamphetamine data for the task force of federal state and local law enforcement agencies.

The study, called the 2002 Hammer Report, found that the number of labs seized in the fast-growing San Bernardino and Riverside counties was higher than the number seized in any other U.S. state except for Washington and Tennessee.

San Bernardino had the highest number, with 186 labs seized last year. That was 43 percent fewer than in 2001 and 72 percent below the all-time high of 661 labs found in 1999.

Law enforcement experts say the drop in methamphetamine lab seizures reflects new strategies used to combat production, such as state and federal limits on the purchase of equipment and chemicals used in the drug's manufacture.

But authorities said most of the labs seized were small independent operations. They are more concerned about so-called superlabs, which make up a tiny fraction of the overall number but produce the bulk of the drug. Superlabs are harder to detect because they can split up the steps of drug production at different sites and move into urban areas where they can be less recognizable.

Law enforcement officials estimate that the 22 of these labs found in San Bernardino and Riverside counties last year had the capacity to produce more than 17 tons of the drug, worth more than $150 million.

Authorities also say that increasingly these labs are being financed by groups from the Middle East and may be sending money back to that region, raising concern that the drugs sales could be financing terrorism.

"It is of great interest to DEA and other agencies who follow these issues to determine where the money that is being sent back eventually ends up," said Michele Leonhart, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Los Angeles Field Division.

In recent years, Middle Easterners in the Midwest have served as his conduit, Leonhart said. He said Mexican groups frequently purchase pseudoephedrine to make the drug from Middle Easterners, who bring it into Canada where restrictions are more lax than in the United States.

The report noted that the superlabs are showing up with greater frequency in other areas of California and in neighboring states.

"The labs south of the border have skyrocketed," said Ken Bambrick, a special agent with the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. "And we are seeing more of these labs spread outside of our jurisdiction. This isn't a problem that is going to go away anytime soon."

The report said much of the drug is sent back east. A pound of methamphetamine can be sold for up to $5,500 in Southern California, according to the report. The same amount can bring in more than $21,000 on the East Coast.<