VintageDirt

Baked Spud
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 1, 2001
3,043
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Didn't we go riding here last year? And I thought that smell was your race gas. :eek:

Friday, February 27, 2004

Underground Meth Lab Found

By Michael Davis
Journal Staff Writer
Authorities raided an underground meth lab booby-trapped with explosives near Rio Rancho early Thursday morning, taking two people into custody.
U.S. Drug Enforcement agents, Rio Rancho police officers and Sandoval County sheriff's detectives found the lab about 10 feet below a dilapidated shed surrounded by chemical barrels and a makeshift graveyard, apparently intended to warn people to stay away.
"This was the result of over a monthlong investigation, and it culminated this morning in the service of a search warrant," DEA Agent Lou Kilgas said. "Agents located an operational meth lab, but no one was cooking at the moment."
Sandoval County Sheriff John Paul Trujillo said Peter Lucero, 43, and Bonnie Mora, 38, were arrested at the scene on federal charges of manufacturing methamphetamines. They were booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center and are being held without bail, according to jail officials.
Kilgas said the suspects are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court today.
The property located near Progress and Rainbow, northwest of Rio Rancho, had several sheds and some old mobile homes on it.
Authorities raided the property about 6 a.m. The lab was lined with concrete, with a passageway between it and the shed.
Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety spokesman John Francis said several pit bulls were removed from the property by a Sandoval County animal control officer.
"It was basically out in the middle of nowhere," Kilgas said. "There was no way our agents and other law enforcement officers could have approached it without being seen."
The Albuquerque bomb squad was called in after agents discovered booby traps made from either dynamite or pipe bombs along the passage leading to the lab, Kilgas said.
"They came in and removed the explosives and then told us that they were more for show and not rigged to go off," she said. "But they had us stopped for a while."
Kilgas said DEA agents confiscated weapons, and chemicals and other items that are used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.
"The male suspect had everything he needed to do a meth cook," she said. "He has an extensive history of narcotics and firearms violations. He has at least 19 prior arrests."
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
 

Tony Eeds

Godspeed Tony.
N. Texas SP
Jun 9, 2002
9,535
0
That explains the county court clerk.
 
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