CONVICTIONS UPHELD IN METHAMPHETAMINE `SUPER LAB' BUST APPELLATE COURT FINDS SEARCHES OK.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

ACTON - A state appeals court has upheld the convictions of three men for operating a methamphetamine ``super lab'' in 2001 in Acton with enough chemicals to produce $3 million worth of the drug.

A three-judge panel in the state's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the men's challenges to search warrants used to find methamphetamine-making gear at an Acton house, empty Freon cans and hydrochloric-acid gas containers in a Lancaster storage locker and more methamphetamine gear and chemicals on a return 11 days later to the house.

Narcotics detectives obtained the second search warrant for the house after watching men unload two vehicles and carry in cardboard boxes like those used to store chemical-grade glassware, cans appearing to contain Freon and large plastic bags.

``Although the actions observed by the officers might individually appear consistent with innocence, the totality of the acts, witnessed through the trained eyes of the narcotics team conducting the surveillance, plainly suggested criminal activity related to the manufacture of methamphetamine,'' wrote the author of the judicial panel's decision.

After the second search in December 2001, narcotics investigators told reporters that the house in the 32300 block of Angeles Forest Highway contained a ``super lab,'' with enough chemicals to produce 60 pounds of methamphetamine worth nearly $3 million on the street.

Jaime Martinez, Ramiro Vega and Roberto Vargas had each pleaded no contest to manufacturing methamphetamine and admitted as true a special allegation that the seized methamphetamine exceeded 10 pounds.

They were each sentenced to three years in prison.

The first search occurred Nov. 26, 2001, at the house. A man and a woman in the house were arrested.

Deputies found a rental agreement for a Lancaster storage locker, obtained a warrant to search the locker and, inside it, found 29 empty five-gallon Freon cans and seven hydrochloric-acid gas containers, each about 5 feet tall, court records said.

Investigators got information that more manufacturing was going on at the house they already had searched. Deputies said they went back on Dec. 5, 2001, and watched as four men, including the defendants, drove up in two vehicles and unloaded cans, boxes and bags.

The men were also seen laying heavy plastic sheets inside the front door of the house, as if to protect the carpeting, deputies said. According to the deputy who obtained the warrant, the men looked around nervously.

A second search was conducted the next day, and deputies said they found the large methamphetamine laboratory in the house.

The appellate court panel found there had been probable cause for the search warrants.

Deputies got the first search warrant for the Acton house after searching a Palmdale home where they discovered methamphetamine, chemicals and equipment and arrested a woman who is the sister of the woman who lived at the Acton house.

Deputies said they then received information from a reliable informant that the Acton house had been used over the previous two months to manufacture methamphetamine.

``This information reasonably led (the deputy who obtained the warrants) to conclude, based on his training and experience, that methamphetamine was being manufactured at the Acton residence,'' the ruling author wrote. ``Thus, the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding a fair probability existed that evidence of a crime would be found at the Acton residence.''

When the deputies returned to the house, they saw men carrying in equipment used to make methamphetamine and connected the activity with the cans found at the storage locker. That was probable cause to get the Dec. 5, 2001, search warrant, the judges ruled.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com