Mindful Method: SWAT training aims to mitigate explosive risk in drug-lab raids

The hissing of a gas tank was drowned out by the sound of a door getting kicked in, then the scuffling of boots, then the shouting of orders.

“Police! Police! Stop! Don’t move!” screamed the officer leading the formation.

He then switched from orders to conversation.

“How long have you been gassing the mix? Very well now, shut off the gas and step away from the table.”

As the so-called cook completed the chemical reaction, he stepped away from the table where he was preparing a batch of methamphetamines and was handcuffed.

The officers finished clearing the house before regrouping outside and removing their gas masks.

They reviewed their raid technique.

Then they prepared for a new simulation.

The training was designed to ingrain in San Juan PD’s Law Enforcement Emergency Regional Response Team the special precautions that officers must take while serving a warrant at a meth lab, where one wrong move could have explosive consequences.

About 15 percent of all meth labs in the U.S. are discovered as a result of a fire or an explosion, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Justice.  

“Conducting a raid in a meth lab is probably the most dangerous entry that a SWAT team can make,” said Jake Kelton, an instructor with the Pennsylvania-based training company, Merit Group. The San Juan unit “is a very skilled team; however, a meth lab is full of chemicals that can very easily cause an explosion. That is why they must re-learn certain aspects of their SWAT training for these specific situations.”

While explosions during meth-lab raids are rare, they are always possible. One of the most dramatic cases took place in April 2010 in Franklin, N.H., when a raid at a meth lab resulted in an explosion. The lab was inside a white wooden house that was close to an elementary school. Fortunately no major injuries were reported.

The training for the San Juan SWAT team follows two recent raids on meth labs in the Rio Grande Valley. The more recent bust took place in July at a house on Sunset Street in San Juan. Three meth cooks were arrested as they prepared the drug, said Juan Gonzalez, San Juan police chief.

While meth labs are not common in the area, Gonzalez said he prefers to be prepared for any eventuality, especially if the current drug war in Mexico shifts production of the substance from Mexico into the U.S.

“There were some dangerous chemicals in that house,” Gonzalez said, referring to the July raid. “It is because of the dangers that those operations present that we are now having these types of training.”

THE DRUG

Methamphetamines are also called meth, speed, ice, crank and crystal, according to information released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The drug can resemble glass fragments or look like shiny, blue-white rocks of various sizes, and it can be swallowed, snorted, injected or smoked.

Because of the ease with which many of the items can be acquired and because of the cheap production cost, rural areas have become cooking grounds for meth, according to a DEA report.

Unlike cocaine or marijuana — drugs that require a raw material like a coca leaf or marijuana plant — methamphetamines are made from materials that are readily available in convenience stores, Kelton said.

The process to make the synthetic drug requires a bit of chemical knowledge.

“A person who uses meth will dispose of 60 percent of it through their urine,” he said. “Those who know will actually shut their water off when they have a party and urinate in a bucket. Then they will use the urine to process the remaining meth.”

Creating meth requires mixing chemicals and gases that not only can harm a person but also can spark an explosion. Adding a regular SWAT raid to that volatile mix only raises the risk.

“If I came in telling the cook to drop everything and get on the floor, or if I come crashing and knock his equipment down, I can very easily cause an explosion that is guaranteed to kill everyone inside of that house,” Kelton said.

That is why the raid operators must take more of a conversational approach to ensure that any chemical hazards are out of the way before securing the suspect, he said. The officers who went through the training are knowledgeable in the process for creating meth so they can secure the area even if they find the cook in the middle of the process, Kelton said.

Though actual meth was not prepared during the training, all the ingredients needed for a real explosion were there. As a precaution, Gonzalez had the team dress down to their secondary vests, and use mainly handguns and shotguns with beanbags.

In “these cases, we can’t use Tasers or large rifles because we don’t want to run the risk of setting off sparks or knocking something over,” Gonzalez said.  

“These operations will rely heavily on the intelligence that we get from our investigators,” Gonzalez said. “Once we determine what is really going on inside the house, then we can prepare for it.”

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Ildefonso Ortiz covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4437.