Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005 | 7:12 a.m.
Methamphetamine is still too easy to find in the Las Vegas Valley, but less and less of it is being manufactured here, a deputy federal drug czar said last week.
A few years ago, Southern Nevada authorities dismantled meth labs almost daily, hauling potentially explosive chemicals out of cheap hotel rooms, apartments, storage sheds and homes.
The number of labs seized in the valley has decreased dramatically in recent years, according to the government's May statistics.
In 2000, 284 meth labs were raided in Clark County. By 2003, the number had dropped to 127, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Last year, police confiscated 85 meth labs. And through October, the number was down to 47.
Still, methamphetamine continues to be sold in the valley -- thanks in part to illegal production in Mexico.
"The vast majority of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in the last 10 years was coming directly from the United States or Canada. That was cut off," said Scott Burns, the White House's deputy drug czar, during a law enforcement conference at the Suncoast last week. "But now it's moved to Mexico. It can be produced there and brought over the border."
Nevada changed its law in 2001 to limit the amount of pseudoephedrine -- found in cold pills such as Sudafed -- that can be purchased at one time to three grams, or 3,000 milligrams. That limit translates to three packets of 96 Sudafed tablets in one purchase, said Louis Ling, Nevada Board of Pharmacy general counsel.
Retailers also commonly put Sudafed and similar cold medicines behind their counters to prevent shoplifting, Ling said.
While those changes have helped restrict access to the raw materials needed to create homemade meth, there still are cases of methamphetamine manufacturing in the valley.
On Oct. 19, for example, an alleged meth lab was found on Waterhole Street, near Rancho Drive and Gowan Avenue.
Rod Chaffee, 42, was arrested after authorities found at his home 19 empty boxes of cold medication containing pseudoephedrine, glassware pots with white residue on the bottom, a clear plastic sandwich bag with a white crystalline substance and all of the chemicals, equipment and paraphernalia typical of a meth lab, police said.
Among his neighbors are U.S. District Judge James Mahan and his wife, Eileen. She said nothing ever looked suspicious at Chaffee's house and that she was shocked to learn that there was an alleged meth lab on her block.
"He could have blown up the place," she said.
Sheriff Bill Young said part of the local strategy in fighting meth is "trying to get to the sources of large drug distribution networks in Southern Nevada."
That produces cases such as that of Heriberto Buendia, 45, a Las Vegas resident who was sentenced in June to 17 1/2 years in federal prison for his role in a major meth distribution ring.
Buendia was arrested in a parking lot trying to sell six pounds of methamphetamine to an undercover North Las Vegas Police officer for $48,000, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Buendia's arrest was part of a six-month joint investigation of the FBI and local police agencies. The case -- Operation Ice House -- centered on a bar that was used as a stash and distribution house for meth and cocaine.
Buendia admitted to authorities that from May 15, 2004, to July 1, 2004, he and several co-defendants conspired to distribute 33 pounds of methamphetamine. The investigation eventually led to 11 federal indictments, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
Although 10 of the men arrested were from Las Vegas and one was from Colorado, federal authorities believe the meth came from Mexico, Collins said.
"We did a pretty good job here in Nevada and the entire country of taking out meth labs," Young said. "But Mexico picked up on that right away. It's coming up the pipeline."
David Kihara can be reached at 259-2330 or at [email protected]
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