ABINGDON, Va. – Although methamphetamine lab busts have largely been out of the news in recent years, the drug persists as a problem in Washington County and surrounding areas, Sheriff Fred Newman said Thursday.
These days, Newman said, people who make the drug have been using what’s referred to as the “shake and bake” or “one pot” method, which creates smaller quantities in very small, mobile labs that are harder to find.
“You don’t have to set up in a garage or a house,” Newman said. “You can set up on your way from Glade Spring to Bristol.”
Five years ago, law enforcement agencies were optimistic about their progress in combating the drug after they seized 26 meth labs in the county in 2004-05.
While Newman said they’re not seeing a lot of those type of labs these days, “We are seeing an increase in the manufacturing.”
A narcotics detective for Washington County Sheriff’s Office, who asked that his name not be released to protect his family, said the meth problem is getting worse.
“You didn’t get rid of it,” he said of the addictive drug. “You’ve got to look too: the people we arrested five years ago … they go to jail, they pull their term, and they’re released. Some of them are going to go right back to cooking again.”
The Sheriff’s Office is always getting tips from the public, the detective said, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of people to make a case in court.
A drug investigator for the town of Abingdon, who also asked not to be identified due to the nature of his work, said that while regulations have been enacted to limit purchases of the drug’s common household ingredients, criminals are finding ways to get around the rules.
“Their way of circumventing the regulations is getting more people involved,” he said, explaining that a person who’s making meth will send several people up and down the interstate at one time to buy ingredients in small quantities that, when put together, are enough to produce the drug.
“Have we seen labs in town this year? Yes,” he said. “Drugs are everywhere. ... The town makes as many drug cases as anybody in Southwest Virginia.”
Newman said large quantities of the drug are also being brought in from out of state, and 80 percent to 90 percent of Washington County’s crime is drug-related.
“It’s going to be a continuing problem and an ongoing problem,” Newman said.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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