Crankster Gangsters, Part 12

Back in the 1980s, there came into existence many “meth labs”. They were involved in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, largely from ingredients shipped to the United States, from China, in ton quantities. The ingredient was ephedrine, derived from the plant Ephedra vulgaris.

These labs existed in crescents around McClelland Air Force Base, in far away places, up in the hills north of Marysville, and out along Highway 70. There were some meth labs that located in small overnight cabins in Rio Nido, along the Russian River. There were some that hired out houseboats on the Cosumnes and Mokelomne Rivers. Whether or not they succeeded, or got busted, they left a chemical mess.

Sandia Labs attempted to create a method that would help to clean up this chemical mess. To our greater misfortune, the Drug Enforcement Administration had little desire to co-operate with Sandia

Sandia Labs sent out their best chemists, sub-rosa, to find out what chemistries were being used, and to report back with such chemicals in hand. Had the DEA been co-operative, they could have provided Sandia with all the information that was needed. They did not do so.

A search through the literature yielded a process called the Leuckart Reaction that produces amines by reductive amination. The reagents used were not restricted at the time. They were rather obscure at best. A chemist, employed by Sandia, set out to obtain the needed reagents and ordered them from a chemist shop, paying in advance by check. When he picked them up, the transaction had already been reported to the D.E.A. The shop owner knew about the Leuckart Reaction.

The employee from Sandia got busted no only in possession in possession of all the necessary equipment and chemicals, but with reaction under way and finished product in high purity. It was a Federal beef. It went to Federal Court. A certain Federal judge, who was not directly involved in the case, gained access to the prosecutor’s evidence. That judge was a close relative of the accused. Though he, himself, had presided over many drug cases with evidence from the same source, this case caused him to become angry and bitter.