U.S. Border Security and California Meth Labs

President Obama stressed greater border security in his State of the Union Address in January, an issue that is directly tied to the illegal drug trafficking of drugs in the U.S. Although, the concept of securing our borders is a good one, I don’t think it’s possible to stop illegals from entering the country, if that’s what they want to do. But, I have no doubt that our border problem is adding to our nation’s drug problem and the rate of crime and violence in our neighborhoods. Naturally, I am especially concerned about the meth problem that is being fueled by our neighboring countries, particular Mexico.

Obama said in his State of the Union Address that we need to use some “common sense” for a change, when thinking about ways to address problems. Common sense says that stopping every illegal from entering the U.S. isn’t possible. If someone wants to enter the U.S illegally, they can do it. They can climb over fences, dig under them, or make holes in them. They can come in by boat, or car, by plane, or trailer truck. Heck, they can just walk over the border in many areas. That’s creating a big problem for border states, who are witnessing an influx of criminal groups who are coming in to the country for one reason – to make money selling meth and other drugs.

Criminal groups coming in to the U.S. from Mexico,  are uppermost on the minds of law enforcement in America’s southern border states. California, in particular, reports that Mexican criminal groups are continuing to increase the number of super meth labs in their state. Drug investigators in California say they are also contributing to the increase in pseudoephedrine smurfing in their largest cities.

According to a Situation Report published by the National Drug Intelligence Center, California has been noticing an increase in pseudoephedrine smurfing and super meth labs in their state since 2007.

(picture) California Cities Where Law Enforcement Officials Reported an Increase in Pseudoephedrine Smurfing in 2008 and 2009.

Each of those super labs, which can produce 10 pounds of meth in a single cooking cycle, leaves behind  50 to 60 pounds of hazardous waste products. 50 to 60 pounds of hazardous chemicals and materials every single time they make a batch of meth!

Sometimes police find their meth lab waste and sometimes they don’t.

Producing 10 pounds of meth takes alot of pseudoephedrine, but the Mexican criminal groups have been able to get it. How are they getting people to buy that much pseudoephedrine for them? The government report says they’re getting the homeless in California neighborhoods to help them.

A 2007 incident mentioned in the report describes how one Fresno County couple was paying homeless people $30 to buy pseudoephedrine for them. In some cases, the couple said they paid the homeless shoppers with alcohol. When police seized the couple’s vehicle, they reported finding pseudoephedrine packages and several cell phones. They also found pharmacy listings that had been ripped out of an area phone book.

Smurfing operations in California continued to increase in 2008 and in 2009, according to  law enforcement agencies. In fact, police reported that 21 large California cities reported a rise in smurfing activity, resulting in an increase in super labs and meth lab dump sites.

Fresno and Stanislaus San Joaquin Methamphetamine Task Forces reported about the evidence they’ve been finding about meth labs in their area. Their list includes:

• pseudoephedrine product price lists

• store receipts

• coupons for pseudoephedrine products

• pseudoephedrine product packaging

• paper shredders

• gallon-size freezer bags

• 5-gallon plastic buckets filled with various commercial brands of pseudoephedrine tablets.

• trash bags full of pseudoephedrine blister packs

• empty bags containing residue from pseudoephedrine tablets at laboratory dumpsites

Last year, the report says that smurfing became so prevalent in the Los Angeles area that pseudoephedrine was being transported back over the border to Mexico.

The pseudoephedrine problem, like the one they’re having in California, appears to add more kindling to the fire that’s being started by legislators and law enforcement in several states,  who believe the “common sense” answer is turning pseudoephedrine in to a prescription drug. Without pseudoephedrine, they feel, most meth lab cooks, will be out of business, creating safer communities and allowing law enforcement to devote their efforts to other community needs.

Here’s a scary  prediction about the future of meth labs in California, that is excerpted from the government’s report:

“The number of superlabs in California will remain relatively high in the near term as criminal groups and individuals supply laboratory operators with bulk pseudoephedrine acquired through smurfing. There is no indication that pseudoephedrine smurfing will decline in the near term. Smurfing is widespread, well organized, and increasing throughout California. The continued ban on pseudoephedrine imports into Mexico will most likely limit the availability of the chemical in that country, thereby limiting any incentive for Mexican methamphetamine producers to move their operations back to Mexico. In fact, evidence of California smurfers supplying pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine producers in Mexico in 2009 illustrates the continued difficulty that producers in that country are experiencing in acquiring the chemical.”