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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Meth Lab Dismantled Man Arrested After Police Find Chemicals In Post Falls Trailer Court

An inactive methamphetamine lab with enough raw materials to make two pounds of the drug were seized from a trailer park Thursday afternoon and one man was arrested.

Steven R. Perry, 36, was arrested at the Huetter Rest Area about 2 p.m., apparently lured there by the Idaho Criminal Investigation Bureau. He lists both a Post Falls and an Athol address and told jailers he is self-employed doing odd jobs.

Perry is being held in the Kootenai County Jail. He makes his first court appearance today.

Agents were hoping to make other arrests in the two-month investigation, but felt compelled to make a move once they discovered there was a lab at space 43 in the El Rancho Mobile Home Park. It is the first meth lab to be taken down in North Idaho this year.

“It defies logic that somebody would do something like this in a trailer park,” said Wayne Longo, special agent in charge. The chemicals involved in making meth are quite caustic and sometimes fatal.

“The chemicals can explode, the fumes can be hazardous,” Longo said. “Boise had (a lab) catch fire a few days ago.”

Two people died in Hauser Lake in 1989 from meth lab fumes.

A hazardous materials cleanup company filled five drums with chemicals, glassware and other materials. Most of it will go to a toxic waste incinerator.

There was 2 pounds of ephedrine - a key ingredient in making meth - red phosphorus, and some unidentified chemicals. Much of the lab was in boxes, indicating it was inactive.

Street value for the finished drug runs between $10,000 and $15,000 a pound. It is normally injected or snorted.

Agents also found a .22-caliber revolver, but it doesn’t appear it was connected to the lab. The owner of the trailer, who apparently also lived there, was questioned but not arrested. Police declined to name him.

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