![]() This was a harder case-a case of them turning a blind eye.Teams will complete one or more tasks and answer a series of questions involving the science processes of chemistry focused in the areas of Oxidation/Reduction and Periodicity.Ĭhemistry Lab is an event where participants must learn the year's selected aspects of chemistry and perform a lab or a set of labs regarding those topics. “They didn’t sell 20 pounds of red phosphorus out the side door in the middle of the night. “They were one of the rogue companies that skates around the law,” she said. In their plea agreements, the owners acknowledged coaching employees on how to conduct sales of the substances and fill out paperwork to make any illegal sales look legitimate.įederal authorities, tipped to the case by Brea police, arranged for electronic surveillance that helped show the company knew the sales were illicit, Standish said. The store had been selling crystals for 40 years to treat horses’ ailing hoofs.Īuthorities said ChemLab sold drug manufacturers red phosphorus, iodine and specialized glassware-all key components in manufacturing methamphetamine, the stimulant also known as speed, crank and crystal meth. Three women at a Lancaster feed store are awaiting trial on charges they failed to record sales of iodine crystals properly. In 1999, the owner of a Torrance plastics company, arrested with 17 others, was charged with aiding and abetting the manufacture of methamphetamine for supplying large amounts of Freon to meth manufacturers. Last year, an Anza pharmacist was arrested on charges of illicit sales of pseudoephedrine. Although the Inland Empire is considered to be the center of the illicit trade, hundreds of labs have been found throughout the region, Mrozek said.įederal, state and local officials, working in a task force, have been helped by a 1998 law that requires merchants to log detailed information, including driver and vehicle license numbers, on all buyers of products needed for meth manufacturing. Southern California has long been known as a hotbed for manufacturers of methamphetamine. “By selling large quantities of these substances, they just make it easy for to circumvent the law.” “These are people who sell products that have legitimate uses: Freon, iodine, pseudoephedrine,” Mrozek said. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek in Los Angeles. In the first six months last year, more than 40% of its revenue came from illegal sales.ĬhemLab is among several businesses that have come under federal scrutiny recently for suspicious sales of so-called precursor substances used to manufacture methamphetamine, said U.S. ![]() The company admitted that more than a quarter of its 1999 revenue-an amount exceeding $400,000-resulted from the illegal sale of chemicals and supplies. Hakes and Insley each own 40% of the company, and Miller owns the rest.Īuthorities said the three-year probe was triggered after investigators noticed that the company’s drugs kept surfacing at meth labs raided by police. There was no stipulated sentence for Kevin Scott Miller, 36, of Anaheim. Matthew William Insley, 41, of Huntington Beach, who ran ChemLab’s Hawthorne store, is expected to get 10 months in custody. Prosecutors on Tuesday filed plea bargains in which the company’s three owners each agree to plead guilty to one drug felony charge.ĭavid Vander Hakes, 44, of Corona, is expected to be sentenced later to a 15-month term, said Assistant U.S. ![]()
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