Meth labs in the woods

J

jscalia

Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
126
I got this advisory emailed to me from the New Jersey Fish and Game Comission today. Makes me a little more cautious thinking about going out with my kids in the deep woods

**************************************************
Hunters in Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee discovered
methamphetamine labs or their remnants during trips in the woods, as
drug
makers seek more remote areas in which to produce the drug. In April
2005
the first methamphetamine lab bust in New Jersey occurred in Sussex
County. Labs have subsequently been seized in Monmouth and Bergen
counties.

Unfortunately, methamphetamine, a toxic and highly addictive stimulant,
can be made in a clandestine lab by almost anyone with the know-how for
a mere $100 in ingredients available at most supermarkets and hardware
stores. Methamphetamine manufacturing is extremely dangerous, producing
toxic fumes, residue and waste and can result in explosions and fires.
While no 'cooking' sites or 'labs' have been discovered in New Jersey's
woods to date, the potential for someone to come across toxic and
sometimes lethal materials outdoors is still a concern.

The Sussex County Methamphetamine Task Force has created a brochure and
flyer about the possible manufacturing of methamphetamine in the woods
to raise awareness about this potential hazard. Outdoor enthusiasts
are encouraged to visit www.centerforprevention.org to view and/or
download the information on what to look for and actions to take if you
find
a suspected lab. Questions should be directed to the Methamphetamine
Task Force by calling Becky Carlson at 973-383-4787.
 
Man, that sucks.

I guess a good survival tactic is to avoid detection in the area of a lab by methed out freaks!
 
One of my best friends is a deputy sheriff here in CO. He is currently on their SWAT team and says more and more of their meth-lab busts have been in rural areas instead of in-town, lately. Guess these guys are moving their ops to more secluded areas.
 
Just apply some common sense in the woods and you will be okay. If you are at a dump location, say to do some plinking, keep your eyes open for things like coleman fuel cans, propane tanks, coffee filters that are red stained, bottles of any chemical that seems out of place, plastic tubing, bottles that are rigged up to accept plastic tubing.. stuff like that.

I doubt if you will run into an armed situation unless a cook is going on at that moment in time. That would be pure coincidence.

Most of the chemicals are all things that you often have around the house. The key is that they are centralized together. Be cautious if you run into strangers where you would not expect to see anyone. Many of these people have serious dental issues and you ought to watch for that... I would be nervous if I ran into anyone that would fit as a hillbilly character in the movie, Deliverance. Movie was just on TV again recently.
 
Maybe there should be a season opened up on those scumbags! I'll be first in line to get me some meth-head tags!
 
It is a sad fact that drugs have crept into our wild places. Here in California drug labs have been set up in small cars, rental properties, storage facilities, and shipping containers. Houses in nice residential neighborhoods have become labs. So have motor homes and old buses. Our National Forests have be come infested with drug labs and drug dealers.

Keep your eyes and nose open for anything in the wilds that don't fit. Stay away from suspected labs and report what you have seen. DON'T investigate yourself. The cookers are usually armed. Don't take stupid risks.
 
Avoidance is definitely the best method to safety. Don't try to 'sneak through'. Don't investigate. Silently go back the way you came.

Such possibilities are exactly why one should travel armed while in the backwoods. Your safety is your own responsibility.
 
Spooky, you're right, however in NJ you can't carry a handgun. I always carry for feral dogs or feral people !! ...BTW I know of someone here in NY who saw two strange people in the woods .A check with the state police that night revealed they were two murderers who had just buried a body !!
 
2dogs said:
It is a sad fact that drugs have crept into our wild places. .... Our National Forests have be come infested with drug labs and drug dealers.
Click to expand...

How bad is the risk, do you think? While traveling in the national parks or BLM lands, I've never spotted anything untoward but I'm also getting ready to head further out, away from the crowds. What I'm wondering is, how heavy is the equipment/chemicals necessary to make meth & other drugs? Are drug dealers and manufacturers only an issue within, say, a mile of a road or do I have to worry about these guys further back than that?

I swear, everytime I convince myself that I don't actually NEED a gun while hiking, you guys pop up with something else to worry about.

Last time I looked, most of the 4 wheel drive roads in the national parks within California were closed due to some "roadless wilderness" regulation or something like that. When I heard about that, I was a little annoyed, but now I'm thinking that maybe this is a good thing as it keeps the meth heads out of the deeper reaches of the parks.
 
I don't know about meth labs, but pot fields can sometimes be booby-trapped!

If you come across a suspicious area, watch for trip lines and the like as you're leaving the area. I've never come across anything like that personally, but I have heard about people being injured by booby-traps (usually shotgun shell-based), often on the legs/knee.

I hope no one here ever gains any personal experience in this regard, but it's something to watch for.

Our national forests and other government lands belong to those of us who appreciate them, not those who want to cook up poisons there.:mad:
 
I've heard about booby trapped fields as well, aprticularly in a park in Kentucky whose name escapes me at the moment. Actually, I recently heard where a lot of the old backwoods moonshiners have started up making meth because its much safer to transport ( a trunk load instead of a truck load) and much more valuable.

I imagine 3 or 4 guys could set up a lab just about any distance into the woods. The gear is not heavy and the only reason it would take multiple people is the bulky pots or lab equipment.
 
ah, you guys are breaking my heart. A quick google search turned up this story:

http://www.cannabis.net/articles/nationalparkpot.html

I'm thinking that it's time for the US to end the "war on drugs," especially since we don't seem to be funding it anymore. Just legalize this stuff, grow it or make it out in the open, and cut the economics out from under the crap that has these crime families screwing up the national forests.
 
meth labs are bad things...and the people making meth have realized the fact that they go BOOM...fairly often from what i have encountered...so moving them to rural areas, farm houses, barns, small towns, and abandon areas is a great thing as long as they can afford the gas to get there and back (which is also and issue and leads to more crime ie robbery) .....also something to note is the fact that if ur walking around and find one of these...there possibly may be a worker near by and they arent as smart as u and i and thus will fire a gun at u...this leads to a large boom also...meth isnt hard to make but it also isnt hard to explode....so just be carefull around ur local meth labs.
 
Or start executing dealers.

I will admit that I'm not a big fan of the war on XXXX mentality, be it drugs, poverty, terror, whatever. However, I don't excuse criminal behavior, especially violent behavior. Some innocent kids get killed by these booby traps or toothless scumbags, it wasn't the government that killed them, it was the bad guys. And they are bad guys. And deserve to be treated as such. There still is a right and a wrong. Setting booby traps and running meth labs is wrong. No if's, and's or buts.
 
So I kept looking at articles on drugs in the national forests. I've got good news and I've got bad news. Good news is, in California anyway there's a lot less meth labs out there than there used to be. According to this article, back in 2003 or so they saw a plunge in the number of meth labs in California's central valley. The reason why is all the drug workers were going to work on marijuana farms.

Bad news is, the marijuana farms are massive. They call them 'plantations' and apparently Mexican-affiliated drug cartels are behind them. When the border crack-down started shortly after 9/11, the pot growers in Mexico were having a hard time smuggling pot into this country, so they move their growing operations up here.

From the article:

The cartels dispatch their troops down isolated roads in steep terrain in February and March. Growers bushwhack a couple of miles into the woods, carrying 25-pound tanks of propane, 50-pound sacks of fertilizer, pesticides and hoes. Periodic food drops supplement poached animals. The farmers clear the understory of foliage, leaving a canopy for camouflage; they cut terraces in the slopes, run irrigation hoses from creeks and rivers for miles and carve out a sprawling camp. For every five acres of marijuana, a grower will develop 180 acres of wilderness.
Click to expand...

The article also says that there's parts of our national parks that are "no go" zones for both civilians and park rangers from April-to-October.

Words cannot describe how mad this story makes me. Oh, and the park rangers can't get the equipment and money they need to bust these plantations because it's all being used to either control the border or to go after drug operations in central america.

Isn't it lovely to see the way we're just giving this country away to the worst sorts of people?

OK, I'm going to stop now because if I go on any longer this thread will have to be moved to the political arena or something.

Damn it. It just isn't right.....

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
I'd be most worried about surprising guys in the middle of a cook. Pretty dismal - wandering off in the woods for some peace and quite, and find a bunch of guys who want to kill you.

Not sure the war on drugs should be completely scrapped, but with respect to cannabis it seems like more harm comes from the illegal activity than the use itself. Legallizing sounds like a good option - mostly because I hate to see my tax dollars spent on catching, prosecuting, and detaining small-time pot dealers. Plus, if pot were legal, you could kill consumption with a $5/pack tax like they do with cigarettes. Use the tax money and other money you save to go after meth and other stuff that really ruins people.

The "ninjas of the woods" comment in the linked article was amusing, though.
 
darklight943 said:
One of my best friends is a deputy sheriff here in CO. He is currently on their SWAT team and says more and more of their meth-lab busts have been in rural areas instead of in-town, lately. Guess these guys are moving their ops to more secluded areas.
Click to expand...

A few years ago the Hayman fire near Colo Springs came close to a friends house. He had to evacuate and while talking to some of the fire fighters, they told him about all the un-natural explosions they'd been hearing. Turns out, it was the chemicals and propane tanks that the meth cookers have been using in the forest. They found the burned bottles and other tell tale items after the fire was put out. From what he said there were several explosions a day heard as the fire moved along it's path.
 
It is very risky to use an open flame as a heat source to make meth. The propane tanks had ammonia gas in them and they can explode. The tanks are not full of propane. The other flamable are used as solvents not as a fuel source. I could see using a generator to run a hot plate to make meth out in the woods, but you are still limited to a location you can drive to.

Again, I would not worry much about running into a meth lab in the woods. I would worry more if you run into a small group of people that are cooking. There lies the primary danger to people. Most of the other stuff is just trash. Yes, these things can contaminante the soil. But it would be very localized.

Be concerned about People not the lab (or people and a lab). Pay attention and you will be fine.
 
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