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Did you realize that yesterday's methampetamine lab busts in the city and Suffolk County happened on National Meth Awareness Day? The things you learn!
The Drug Enforcement Agency named the bust "Operation Red Fusion" and targeted the nine meth labs because they used the same online company to buy materials like red phosphorous. The DEA's Administrator Karen P. Tandy said, "The danger of meth labs has spread from Mid-America to Midtown. Meth labs are toxic time bombs—they reek of poisonous chemicals that endanger children and the environment and rack up health care costs. In New York City, the potential for damage is enormous—drug criminals are playing with fire in apartment buildings that thousands of innocent people call home."
As reported, one of the men arrested was Michael Knibb, a vice president of information technology for Citibank. His meth lab was in his penthouse living at 330 East 39th Street, shocking his neighbors who called him "a real gentleman." Knibb made his own meth because he lost a reliable crystal meth source when he moved here from Seattle a year and a half ago.
The other notable arrest was Mehmetcan Dosemeci, a Fulbright scholar and Columbia graduate student in history. The DEA said that Dosemeci made meth to stay awake while writing his dissertation. Dosemeci, who was out on $150,000 bail and had the chemicals to make meth shipped directly to his home, told the Post, "It's just not as it seems at the moment. It's a big misunderstanding."
The other meth labs were in auto repair shops and even in the back of a pickup truck. Best quote is from a resident in Knibb's building to WABC 7: "Nobody told anybody ... that's insane, they could have blown the whole building up!" Ha - can you imagine a note slipped under your door from Knibb saying, "Hey, FYI, there may be an explosion as I have a secret meth lab in my living room."
Photographs of Knibb's penthouse meth lab from the DEA
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When you’re a person in a very important, highly paid position, you should stick with your regular 420/Snow Delivery service.
If you can afford it, minimize the risks.
this story is so crazy.
someone was telling me that with meth houses, everything becomes so contaminated (walls, flooring, etc) that you have to destroy the house. i'm not sure if that's true, but if so, what can they do in these cases?
That's pretty cool.
what Idiots. everybody knows you keep the meth labs in the basement.
my fave quote is: "It's just not as it seems at the moment. It's a big misunderstanding."
yeah... a big misunderstanding explain that to a grand jury.
Wasn't a coincidence that the DEA timed its Meth raids for National Meth Awareness day. Good for them, though. It's a huge problem, and especially on the East Coast people don't realize the damage a Meth epidemic can cause.
the raid was a day b4 "MAD". according to ABC NEWS the raid was on the 29th... MAD was yesterday, the 30th... : )
http://www.usdoj.gov/methawareness
Dangerous Stuff.
A house blew up 2 blocks my sisters nice surburban home In NJ. Turned out to be a meth lab.
It is one thing blowing up your own home but, with Apt living, the danger can be a lot closer than next door.
I live in the same building as the "great misunderstanding" and I am very concerned about the health affects, I called the local precinct but was first put on hold forevever and then hung up on. Does anyone have any info or links, it seems he was also busted two months ago, and he is back in the building today. At a minimum can I get out of my lease?
#9 Mike:
call 311 and explain the situation. the police are not going to be of any help.
I can't believe the people who got busted for this. What about that vice president for citibank or whatever it was. Wtf. I guess what is good for truckers is good for fulbright scholars (sp?0. .
First thing I did was call 311, they gave me attitude and said they couldn't help me, when I asked for my precinct they couldn't find Manhattan Avenue in their database, I'm calling the DEA
I lived in Seattle for a few years, in one of the nicer buildings in a funky neighborhood. My upstairs neighbors seemed perfectly fine, if off-beat - they let their birds fly around the house instead of keeping them in cages - but aside from that, normal. It probably helped that I keep late hours so activity in the evenings didn't bother me.
One night I heard the loud clatter of footsteps upstairs. Again, not out of the normal - it usually would stop after a short while - but this night it didn't, so I opened my door to walk upstairs and ask them to keep it down.
Standing on the landing was a DEA agent, who yelled PLEASE CLOSE YOUR DOOR. He didn't have to ask me twice. This was an old 1920's building and there were two entrances to each apartment (one through the kitchen, which used an internal tunnel to connect to the outside - so I used that.
When I came back a few hours later, the building manager buzzed me and told me that there had been a meth lab in the apartment, that the DEA had been watching them for months. The week before, there had been a minor explosion in the apartment during daylight hours, and when the managers entered to see what was going on, they saw the full setup.
Again, be thankful it's not an epidemic out here.
yet
sorry mike,
the NYPD are busy raiding peoples homes looking for a "gun" and "fourth" person in Queens.
that means, tough titties if your apartment get's contaminated, guess that's better than an early morning raid.
Idiots. My bet is Citi-yupster and Ivy Leaguer both get good lawyers, don't feel much in the way of penalty or punishment, and as usual the example won't deter more of these set ups from popping up in aparments around town.
How scary is that you can buy into a "nice" building and have dirtbags in nice suits cooking speed upstairs from where your kid is sleeping?
First off if you meet Knibb on the street you would not be able to tell if he used or not.
Secondly, if you did assume he used I would have limited to weed, not meth.
Third, I don't know if I would classify the meth lab as the only dangerous part of his appartment. It was stuffed to the gills with all sorts of stuff when I saw it, not everything I would trust.
I don't think you can weed people out for non-conformity after they purchase a place, your appartment should have rules before had that allows the building owners to exile based on non-conformity or feleny convictions.
When one of Mike's previous managers found out, she was surprised, but not too surprised.
I used to work with Knibb (in Seattle). He always seemed kinda odd, but I never would have guessed the guy was a meth-head. And I for sure didn't know he was making $250K at his new job!