COUNTY DRUG LAB RAIDED: TWO ACCUSED OF ATTEMPTED METH MANUFACTURING

About 30 federal, state and local law enforcement officers raided an illegal drug lab in rural Cape Girardeau County early Friday.

Seven people were arrested and two were charged.

County prosecutors charged James Ernest Cagle, 37, of Campbell Route 1, and Steven Clifton Lawson, 31, of New Madrid with attempting to manufacture methamphetamine, a class B felony.

The two were being held Friday evening in the Cape Girardeau County Jail at Jackson in lieu of $25,000 bonds each. The other five people were released.

Authorities still are investigating and other charges are expected to be filed, said Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan, who participated in the raid.

The sheriff said he expects federal charges to be filed.

Authorities were armed with a search warrant when they raided the home at 4199 County Road 620 shortly after 6 a.m.

Inside, officers discovered a Nazi-method methamphetamine lab. Jordan said it was the largest such lab seized so far in Southeast Missouri.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration typically refers to them as Nazi-method labs because the Nazis developed such labs during World War II to provide drugs to keep their soldiers alert, Jordan said.

This was the 16th meth lab seized by authorities in Cape Girardeau County this year.

"Most of the labs that have been seized in this area have not been this large," said Jordan.

The seizure will put a dent in drug trafficking in the area, he said.

Officers confiscated close to two pounds of the illegal drug and methamphetamine ingredients Friday.

"When you are making that much it definitely is for distribution," Jordan said. "This lab was capable of producing multiple pounds," he said.

"My understanding is that Missouri is No. 1 in the seizure of Nazi-method meth labs," the sheriff said.

A hazardous waste disposal team from St. Louis was assigned the task of disposing of the dangerous chemicals used to make the illegal drug at the Cape Girardeau County home.

The team has a contract with the Drug Enforcement Administration to clean up such drug labs.

Jordan said officers could smell the chemicals as far as a quarter mile from the house.

The chemicals are very explosive and dangerous, Jordan said. One officer suffered minor injuries -- irritations to the nose and eyes -- from the chemicals, he said.

Chemicals used in making the illegal drug include ether, anhydrous ammonia, denatured alcohol and drain cleaner.

Add to that sodium metal, which explodes when it comes in contact with water, and the combination can be extremely dangerous, Jordan said.

The sheriff said that nationwide, 20 percent of the illegal labs are discovered when there are explosions or fires at those facilities.

"That is why law enforcement lets specialists take over immediately," Jordan said.

Officers of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the SEMO Drug Task Force, the sheriff's departments in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties, the Cape Girardeau Police Department, and the Southeast Missouri crime lab participated in the investigation.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department's SWAT team participated in the raid, Jordan said.

None of the people in the house resisted arrest, the sheriff said. "Everything went really well," he said.