The production process creates toxic and hazardous waste that endangers law enforcement personnel, emergency response teams, and the environment. Methamphetamine laboratories may contain a variety of highly flammable toxic chemicals and vapors. Clandestine laboratories produce 5-6 pounds of toxic waste for every pound of methamphetamine produced. Most toxic residue from methamphetamine production is dumped in the local area, contaminating groundwater and killing vegetation. In Adams County, methamphetamine cookers are gathering all the necessary equipment and precursors and cooking on rural, gravel roads and leaving waste in ditches.
Government agencies spend millions of dollars every year to clean up laboratory sites.
Transportation Mexican DTOs are transporting methamphetamine into Illinois from California and Mexico. DEA offices in Wyoming report that cities there have become transit centers for multipound quantities of methamphetamine shipped from California to Chicago. Seizures of methamphetamine from private vehicles driven from California and Texas to Illinois have become more common over the past 2 years. In June 1998, the California Highway Patrol seized 13.4 kilograms of methamphetamine from two Mexican males during a traffic stop in Placer County, California. The suspects were en route to Chicago from San Francisco.