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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Big Blast As Cops Set Off Caps From Meth Lab

By Laura Nesbitt
Mountain View Telegraph
      Some residents of McIntosh along with inmates at the Torrance County Detention Facility probably heard a large blast around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night.
       About 100 dynamite blasting caps made in the 1930s were detonated by two New Mexico State Police bomb technicians at the jail, said Estancia Police Chief Jimmy Chavez.
       “The blast could be heard all the way to McIntosh,” Chavez said.
       Law enforcement officials had encountered “some twists and turns” before executing a warrant on a property at an Estancia trailer park that led officers to a methamphetamine lab and the explosive devices, Chavez said.
       “We found two tanks of anhydrous ammonia, a pretty caustic substance and a key component for making meth. One of the bottles had a faulty valve” and could possibly have exploded, Chavez said.
       At the location officers also found blasting caps, said Virgil Doty, Estancia animal control and police officer who escorted the bomb squad, who were wearing protective gear to the firing range at the jail so they could set off the explosives.
       The squad buried the caps inside a protective container and blew them all up at once.
       Although the caps are only a little over a half-inch long, they made “one heck of a large boom,” Doty said.
       “The ground shook,” he said.
       “Each one of those blasting caps has the capability of taking off someone's hand. And when you add to that the factor of antique copper surroundings that can turn into fragments, then you could easily cause injury or even death,” Chavez said.
       Law enforcement officers, who took about 12 hours to completely execute the warrant, chose to evacuate the entire trailer park because of the faulty nature of the anhydrous ammonia tank.
       About 1:30 a.m., officers allowed residents to go back to their homes.
       John Dean, 23, was arrested and charged with trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substances, possession of drug precursors, abandonment or abuse of a child, possession of an explosive device or incendiary device and possession of drug paraphernalia, Chavez said.
       Dean has a previous arrest last year for burglary, Chavez said.
       According to Chavez, the child was not at home at the time the officers executed the warrant.
       The 8-year-old child has been placed in a safe location, Chavez said.
       “Luckily, despite all the hazards, we're very fortunate that no one was injured,” Chavez said.
   

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