It started a blaze so hot the fire department had to give up and let the house burn. Evidence of a meth chemical dump litters a roadside by an almond orchard east of Atwater in rural Merced County in June. The dumps typically occur along quiet rural roads and are comprised of used materials that would be incriminating evidence against meth cooks. One lab hidden in a bamboo field on the same street turned out to be one of that county's largest lab busts. They'll cook anywhere.
Nothing is sacred anymore.
What small-time meth makers lack in smarts, however, they make up for in numbers. On a day in late spring, narcotics detectives Mark Ottoboni and Pat Sullivan put on white suits, old shoes and two pairs of gloves apiece and begin sifting through the ashes of a house on Paradise Road in west Modesto. This has become a typical day for Ottoboni and Sullivan. There are so many lab mishaps, the detectives spend most of their time searching charred labs and lab dump sites for evidence instead of combating manufacturers. There are so many now, it's hard to proactively work them.