The drug dealer next door: Police launch new crackdown on clandestine labs, here’s how to spot a real-life Breaking Bad

Police are calling on the community to dob in the drug dealer next door amid a rise in the number of clandestine laboratories – with larger and more complex home-made set-ups, with higher production capacity and more dangerous recipes than ever before.

The warning comes in the lead-up to this week’s Clandestine Laboratory Investigators conference being held in Sydney over four days, with law enforcement from all Australian states and territories – as well as the US, Singapore and New Zealand – sharing their latest technology and intervention methods.

Australian health authorities have also given a rare insight into the accuracy of waste-water testing for the trace of illicit drugs.

The technology is now so good that waste water tests can detect whether the trace of illegal drugs has passed through someone’s body – or simply been dumped into the sewer network as a raw product, perhaps to evade detection ahead of drug bust.

As part of a special preview to this week’s event – only the third of its type held in Australia – EFTM was granted access to the NSW Police unit that specialises in investigating and shutting down clandestine laboratories that are popping up across the state.

The key findings make for grim reading:

• The number of clandestine laboratories has increased sharply since the end of COVID shutdowns, as the street price of illegal drugs continues to hit record highs in Australia;
• Criminal gangs are using rental homes, Air BNB short-term stays, ‘granny flats’, apartments, farm sheds, and vacant shops to set up makeshift drug labs to manufacture drugs and then move on to the next location;
• Some clandestine drug laboratories use modified beer kegs and plastic buckets – rather than scientific glassware – to mix potent chemicals;
• There is now an emerging industry of clean-up teams contracted by real estate agents to decontaminate former rental properties that have been used as drug labs;
• The output and scale of each drug lab is getting larger and more dangerous, posing a greater risk to unwitting neighbours, as well as endangering emergency service officers called to deal with the spate of fires and explosions;
• There is an increase in the number of what police call “tinkerers” (individuals rather than criminal gangs) experimenting with their own DIY drug production using instructions illegally-sourced via the dark web;
• An increase in criminal gangs exploiting foreign students or new Australian citizens from non-English-speaking backgrounds who are being exposed to serious health risks while working inside clandestine laboratories, and/or facing serious jail time if caught;
• A new warning over pill testing that shows some pills are more potent than others, even when tested from the same batch.

Since the end of COVID shutdowns across Australia, police say they have noticed a sharp increase in the number of clandestine laboratories – with larger and more complex home-made systems with bigger outputs than before.

In one recent drug bust, police discovered criminals were disposing waste chemicals by emptying toxic fluids on the fence line of a suburban house – with the unintended consequence of killing the backyard lawns of surrounding properties.

In another drug bust, a domestic animal was found dead not far from a puddle in a backyard that had been filled with chemical waste sludge.

A number of police have been left with lifelong injuries to their eyes – including in some cases blindness – because the chemical fumes in the clandestine lab were so toxic.

In some cases the chemicals and powders on the floors of the makeshift labs are so toxic, the shoes of first responders fall apart just days after a drug lab bust. 

As a result, Police and Fire and Rescue services always assume the worst when they break the doors down in a clandestine laboratory.

Police and Fire officers use sensitive air quality detection devices to see if it is safe to enter the clandestine lab.

And, once inside, high-tech portable devices can scan up to 20,000 different molecules to detect compounds such as cutting agents, pre-cursors, types of drugs or drug ingredients.

In an exclusive interview with EFTM, NSW Police Detective Inspector of Chemical Operations, Warren Lysaght, said while police have numerous detection methods, information from neighbours and the community is still of “high value” in the fight against clandestine drug laboratories.

“People in the community are the best eyes and ears. They know their neighbourhood.”

So what are the warning signs that mums and dads at home should be looking for if they suspect there is a clandestine laboratory next door? 

“The biggest giveaways are any unusual chemical smells coming from a premises, and any unusual activity.

“Are people coming and going at odd hours, and it’s not a typical family that’s moved in next door?

“Are the windows covered so people can’t see in? Are exhaust fans fitted to the dwelling in places you wouldn’t normally expect to see exhaust fans?”

Mr Lysaght said anyone who notices any suspicious activity is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers (1800 333 000).

“It is completely anonymous, and the information does get sent to the detectives in the relevant area.

“That tip-off from a neighbour could be the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle, so we always encourage people to contact us so we can make some routine checks. It might be nothing, or it could be a highly dangerous home-made drug lab.

“Sometimes after we have busted a drug house, neighbours will come out and say to us ‘we thought something was odd there’, but yet they didn’t report it. So we always encourage neighbours to report suspicious activity.

“Any dwelling could be a clandestine laboratory. It could be a brand-new house on a new estate where there are not many neighbours, it could be an old house in an established suburb, a unit next door, a granny flat, a farm shed, or even a vacant shopfront on a busy road, which can help mask chemical odours.

“We encourage property owners not to accept cash as a form of rental or leasing payment, because that is another sign organised crime could be involved, because of course they don’t want to leave a financial trail – and they deal in cash throughout the rest of their illegal enterprise.”

As for pill testing at festivals, Mr Lysaght said that’s a complex area and there is no magic solution.

“One of the complexities of pill testing at large festivals and other events is that the contents of one pill is not necessarily an indication of the level of danger in another pill from the same package.

“There’s no science to it. Illegal drugs are not made to any standards, they are made by criminal gangs whose sole aim is to maximise profits.

“So different pills – even from the same batch – can have different levels of potency because the amount of the illicit substance varies greatly during the production process.

“One pill might have a low amount of an illicit substance while another pill from the same supplier – even from the same packet – could have a deadly amount of drug content in it.

“Authorities can test one pill but that is no guarantee that another pill from the same packet has the same concentration (of the illicit substance). The other pills could have a lethal dose.

“It could have a clump of a particular drug. It could be a synthetic opioid that’s been added into it and, sadly, we have seen that.”

So what should parents do or say if they are trying to discourage their kids from experimenting with illegal drugs?

“It’s one thing for authorities and parents to tell kids ‘say no to drugs’, but young people think they’re invincible and think nothing bad will ever happen to them.

“It’s a really difficult subject to tackle. In my experience, just saying ‘don’t do it’ is not enough of a deterrent. 

“People who experiment with drugs simply need to know that if they do roll the dice, they are risking their life – or risking the life of anyone they share that drug with.

“More than 75,000 people in the US last year died from accidental drug overdoses. They weren’t all drug addicts. They were people from good homes. They were people who had no criminal background.

“The level of life-and-death danger in a lot of drugs these days is frightening.

“People say drugs are bad. Put another way, drugs are harmful and they are killing people.”

Police have also noticed an increase in the exploitation of people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, who are attracted to the promise of easy money but are often unaware of the serious health and legal risks of being involved as a low-level worker in illegal drug labs.

“Organised crime is all about exploitation of people and they are constantly looking for vulnerable people in the community. And new Australian citizens can be a real benefit to criminal enterprises,” said Mr Lysaght.

“They might be here on a student visa, or might be a new citizen from a non-English-speaking background, and they can be more easily enticed by criminal gangs to make some easy money.

“But what many of these people may not realise – if they’re being offered, say, $1000 to be a low level worker at a clandestine laboratory or help deliver the drugs or the pre-cursors – they are putting their health at risk and could also face a lengthy jail term if caught.

“People of all backgrounds who might be approached by criminals with the offer of easy money need to say to themselves, ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is’.

“You might not be a central figure to the illegal enterprise, but if you’re involved you could face serious jail time.

“And the criminals don’t care: they’ll just find someone new tomorrow to fill your spot if you get arrested by the police, or injured from a chemical burn just by helping out in the lab.”