Where am I gonna get meth now?
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Where am I gonna get meth now?
Suspected drug lab hit in South San Jose
`THERE'S CONTAMINATION EVERYWHERE,' OFFICER SAYS
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
Neighbors said Friday they probably shouldn't have been all that surprised to hear that deputy sheriffs stumbled onto a big, sophisticated suspected drug lab in their quiet South San Jose neighborhood.
For the past couple of days, the gray single-story house that always seemed to have an overgrown lawn and sketchy-looking visitors coming and going at all hours has been abuzz with police officers and health and safety inspectors.
The goings-on in the house before the police came were, in retrospect, all obvious signs that it was a drug house, neighbors said.
``We all knew it was kind of shaky, but we never did anything about it,'' said Ann Bucalo, who lives a few doors away. ``I don't know why.''
Her son agreed.
``I figured they were on drugs, but that lab deal . . . that's crazy,'' said Blake Bucalo, a teenager who lives a couple of doors away.
Large amounts of toxic and explosive chemicals used in making methamphetamine were carted away Thursday by people wearing hazardous materials suits. On Friday, city and county officials quarantined, condemned and boarded up the house at 5228 Garlough Drive. They inspected the storm and sanitary sewers and the overgrown, junk-strewn back yard for signs of chemical waste-dumping.
They didn't find anything suspicious in their preliminary work, but chemical tests to be completed in the next few days may tell another story, said Jose Silva, an inspector with the Department of Environmental Services. They know such operations produce a lot waste, and that it had to go somewhere.
If chemical wastes were dumped in the sanitary sewer system, pipes and equipment at the treatment plant might be damaged, but the danger to the public would be minimal, Silva added.
``It goes to one area, it gets treated, and it's relatively safe,'' he said.
If it was dumped in the storm sewer, the danger would be to plants and animals more than to people, he said, since the retaining ponds and creeks aren't used by swimmers.
Silva's next move, after taking a sample of runoff in front of the house, was to do the same at the storm system's outfall into the Guadalupe River.
Bob Cooke, the top agent with the San Jose office of the State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, said the operation wasn't a ``super lab'' capable of making at least 10 pounds of meth at a time, but its four-pound capacity, he said, was pretty impressive -- and dangerous.
Officials said the tenant, Arnold Dewey Daniel III, 53, was suspected of running an operation that could have blown the house up at any moment, and might well have contaminated the soil near their property.
But the deputies went the house for an unrelated issued. They were there to serve an eviction notice. Daniel fled when deputies confronted him Wednesday afternoon. But San Jose police soon found him hiding nearby, behind a tall fence at the storage rental business next door, at Santa Teresa and Coleman avenues.
Daniel was booked into jail on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine for sale, manufacturing methamphetamine, and possession of precursor chemicals and glassware needed to make the drug.
Cooke said Daniel ``knew what he was doing,'' based on the equipment found in the house. But he didn't exactly keep the interior shipshape.
``The place is a pig sty; the guy kept everything,'' Cooke said. ``There's contamination everywhere.''
Drug agents said they found four pounds of finished meth, worth about $30,000 at the wholesale level and much more on the street, as well as about $15,000 worth of expensive glassware and other paraphernalia. Every room had at least two five-gallon cans of chemicals used to make the drug, Cooke said. Even the bathtub held chemical containers.
It was difficult for police processing the scene to pick their way through the mountains of stuff, Cooke said.
The scene was so big and dangerous that state narcotics agents called in expert help from other agencies to help process the evidence. Those responding include officers from San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the Southern Alameda County Task Force.
The first thing police did once they realized they had hit on a possible drug lab was call in PG&E to shut off the power to reduce the chance of sparking an explosion or fire.
Cooke said he feared Daniel might have used a couple of depressions in the overgrown back yard to dump out the chemical waste from the manufacturing process.
``That's real scary for us,'' he said. Inspectors later said they didn't find any stained soil or other signs of dumping in the back yard, such as dead vegetation.
The house can't be rented out to someone else until the contaminated walls, ceilings, and floors are thoroughly cleaned up at the owner's expense, said Rafles Warners, a code enforcement supervisor with the city of San Jose.
``I would be surprised if his bill was less than $100,000,'' Warners said.
Online records at the county assessor's office show the house belongs to Randy Houseweart of San Jose. No one answered a telephone call to his home Friday.
Cooke said the landlord wanted Daniel out because he hadn't paid the rent for several months. Daniel had been living there for more than two years, and may have been making drugs for much of that time.
Most of the neighbors said they never noticed one of the tell-tale signs of a meth lab: a powerful, noxious odor.
One man, Natarajan Sivakumar, said he recalls smelling some ``weird'' but fleeting odors at times, but always figured it was the scent of someone cleaning something or a smell carried on the wind from a nearby business.
But he and his wife, Padma, knew something was not right at the house behind the high brown fence. Rarely were the same vehicles there, rarely was more than one dim light shining inside. Boxes were stacked high at the mouth of the garage door so that no one could see inside when it was open.
Although people on the block are friendly with one another, they never talked about going to the police because the man rarely if ever interacted with them.
``Probably everybody thought the same way, but we never shared'' concerns, Sivakumar said.
`THERE'S CONTAMINATION EVERYWHERE,' OFFICER SAYS
By Chuck Carroll
Mercury News
Neighbors said Friday they probably shouldn't have been all that surprised to hear that deputy sheriffs stumbled onto a big, sophisticated suspected drug lab in their quiet South San Jose neighborhood.
For the past couple of days, the gray single-story house that always seemed to have an overgrown lawn and sketchy-looking visitors coming and going at all hours has been abuzz with police officers and health and safety inspectors.
The goings-on in the house before the police came were, in retrospect, all obvious signs that it was a drug house, neighbors said.
``We all knew it was kind of shaky, but we never did anything about it,'' said Ann Bucalo, who lives a few doors away. ``I don't know why.''
Her son agreed.
``I figured they were on drugs, but that lab deal . . . that's crazy,'' said Blake Bucalo, a teenager who lives a couple of doors away.
Large amounts of toxic and explosive chemicals used in making methamphetamine were carted away Thursday by people wearing hazardous materials suits. On Friday, city and county officials quarantined, condemned and boarded up the house at 5228 Garlough Drive. They inspected the storm and sanitary sewers and the overgrown, junk-strewn back yard for signs of chemical waste-dumping.
They didn't find anything suspicious in their preliminary work, but chemical tests to be completed in the next few days may tell another story, said Jose Silva, an inspector with the Department of Environmental Services. They know such operations produce a lot waste, and that it had to go somewhere.
If chemical wastes were dumped in the sanitary sewer system, pipes and equipment at the treatment plant might be damaged, but the danger to the public would be minimal, Silva added.
``It goes to one area, it gets treated, and it's relatively safe,'' he said.
If it was dumped in the storm sewer, the danger would be to plants and animals more than to people, he said, since the retaining ponds and creeks aren't used by swimmers.
Silva's next move, after taking a sample of runoff in front of the house, was to do the same at the storm system's outfall into the Guadalupe River.
Bob Cooke, the top agent with the San Jose office of the State Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, said the operation wasn't a ``super lab'' capable of making at least 10 pounds of meth at a time, but its four-pound capacity, he said, was pretty impressive -- and dangerous.
Officials said the tenant, Arnold Dewey Daniel III, 53, was suspected of running an operation that could have blown the house up at any moment, and might well have contaminated the soil near their property.
But the deputies went the house for an unrelated issued. They were there to serve an eviction notice. Daniel fled when deputies confronted him Wednesday afternoon. But San Jose police soon found him hiding nearby, behind a tall fence at the storage rental business next door, at Santa Teresa and Coleman avenues.
Daniel was booked into jail on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine for sale, manufacturing methamphetamine, and possession of precursor chemicals and glassware needed to make the drug.
Cooke said Daniel ``knew what he was doing,'' based on the equipment found in the house. But he didn't exactly keep the interior shipshape.
``The place is a pig sty; the guy kept everything,'' Cooke said. ``There's contamination everywhere.''
Drug agents said they found four pounds of finished meth, worth about $30,000 at the wholesale level and much more on the street, as well as about $15,000 worth of expensive glassware and other paraphernalia. Every room had at least two five-gallon cans of chemicals used to make the drug, Cooke said. Even the bathtub held chemical containers.
It was difficult for police processing the scene to pick their way through the mountains of stuff, Cooke said.
The scene was so big and dangerous that state narcotics agents called in expert help from other agencies to help process the evidence. Those responding include officers from San Jose, Campbell, Santa Clara, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the Southern Alameda County Task Force.
The first thing police did once they realized they had hit on a possible drug lab was call in PG&E to shut off the power to reduce the chance of sparking an explosion or fire.
Cooke said he feared Daniel might have used a couple of depressions in the overgrown back yard to dump out the chemical waste from the manufacturing process.
``That's real scary for us,'' he said. Inspectors later said they didn't find any stained soil or other signs of dumping in the back yard, such as dead vegetation.
The house can't be rented out to someone else until the contaminated walls, ceilings, and floors are thoroughly cleaned up at the owner's expense, said Rafles Warners, a code enforcement supervisor with the city of San Jose.
``I would be surprised if his bill was less than $100,000,'' Warners said.
Online records at the county assessor's office show the house belongs to Randy Houseweart of San Jose. No one answered a telephone call to his home Friday.
Cooke said the landlord wanted Daniel out because he hadn't paid the rent for several months. Daniel had been living there for more than two years, and may have been making drugs for much of that time.
Most of the neighbors said they never noticed one of the tell-tale signs of a meth lab: a powerful, noxious odor.
One man, Natarajan Sivakumar, said he recalls smelling some ``weird'' but fleeting odors at times, but always figured it was the scent of someone cleaning something or a smell carried on the wind from a nearby business.
But he and his wife, Padma, knew something was not right at the house behind the high brown fence. Rarely were the same vehicles there, rarely was more than one dim light shining inside. Boxes were stacked high at the mouth of the garage door so that no one could see inside when it was open.
Although people on the block are friendly with one another, they never talked about going to the police because the man rarely if ever interacted with them.
``Probably everybody thought the same way, but we never shared'' concerns, Sivakumar said.
Oakridge Mall is pretty old but not that old. 
