SHERIFF'S TEAM USED CAUTION IN RAID OF ALLEGED METHAMPHETAMINE LAB

When officers raided a suspected methamphetamine laboratory Friday in Cape Girardeau County, they had to be careful that their actions did not set off a potential explosion.

Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan said the size of the lab and the chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine could have presented a real problem if something had gone wrong.

"It's bad when the small labs blow," Jordan said. "If this one went it probably would have taken off a part of that hillside."

Jordan said the alleged lab found in the basement of 4199 County Road 620 was producing pounds of meth. The house had been under surveillance by deputies for a few nights before the raid.

At approximately 6 a.m. Friday morning, officers from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol and Cape Girardeau Police Department's Special Response Team arrested seven people from the residence. Two of them, James Ernest Cagle, 37, and Steven Clifton Lawson, 31, were allegedly in the process of "cooking" the meth when the raid occurred.

The reported size of the lab, the chemicals used and the cooking process limited the Special Response Team's tactics in initiating the raid. Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Brad Moore, team supervisor, said diversion devices like flash-bangs and tear gas could not be used for fear of sparking a fire.

Flash-bangs are explosive devices that give off a loud noise and a blinding light.

Moore said the team of 11 officers used "speed, surprise and action," to make the arrests safely. "It was a matter of having it all set up and going with all due speed and surprise. We caught them flat-footed," he said.

Moore said the entry was made on two levels. Four officers went in the upper level of the house while seven more went to the basement. He said the response team's whole operation probably lasted just a few minutes. The officers that came in after the response team left were at a higher risk, he said.

"They were in there taking the lab down, taking it apart, and they came in contact with the fumes," Moore said. One of these officers suffered some minor injuries to the nose and eyes from the chemicals during this phase of the raid, he said.

Moore said the risk of a fire or explosion resulting from the discharge of a weapon was unlikely. He said if officers had been fired upon they would have fired back. One officer was equipped with a weapon that suppresses the muzzle flash.

Jordan said the chemicals could be smelled in some valleys a quarter-mile from the house. He said getting more information out to the public might stop some of these labs before they get into major production. If more people knew of the chemicals and the smells given off from a meth lab, this one might have been detected earlier, he said.

Rock Wilferth, whose backyard adjoins the property, said he was shocked when he heard about the raid. "I don't know if we ever really smelled anything strange," Wilferth said.

He said he'd never met the men accused of the crime but had no reason to suspect they were involved in manufacturing drugs. He said there was no suspicious traffic to the house that he knew about.

"I don't even know that much about what it was that they were making," Wilferth said.