DEA Releases Locations Of 2 Notorious Recent Meth Labs In Illinois

Have you ever driven by a rundown, crappy building and thought "that's definitely a meth lab"? You may not have actually been wrong.

Making meth is a very involved process and it's hard to keep a lab hidden. Small labs (called 'clandestine') often produce either meth or ecstasy. The process still produces a lot of waste according to experts and they need a lot of ventilation.

Meth labs often explode when the "shake and bake" method is being used for "instant meth". That's when the ingredients are combined in a plastic or glass container, shaken up and heated. Then the meth is extracted. That's when it can kaboom and the lab's cover is blown. Literally.

Clandestine Lab Crackdown

The United States Drug Enforcement Agency (the DEA) keeps a registry of the clandestine labs in the U.S. by date of event and they've got the latest for 2023. These are locations where law enforcement found "chemicals or other items, indicating the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites".

Illinois' Meth Labs

So far this year, Illinois has already had 2 locations appear on the registry.

8019 S. Union Ave. (Chicago)

The date of that bust was March 30th, 2023.

11397 River Valley View Road (Athens)

The DEA didn't say what exactly was found at either of these locations but you know it's bad when Google doesn't even have a Street View of it. That place was uncovered on August 9th.

Meanwhile, Iowa had no busted clandestine labs for 2023.

Who knows what 2024 is going to look like?