The DEA Southwest Laboratory (Vista, California) recently assisted agents from the Los Angeles Division in the seizure of an unusual clandestine methamphetamine laboratory in Los Angeles, California. The laboratory operators (all Asians) were manufacturing l-methamphetamine by hydrogenolysis of d-ephedrine or l-pseudoephedrine. In addition to producing the “wrong” isomer of methamphetamine, the reduction route was unusual. The ephedrine/pseudoephedrine was activated in situ with either nitric acid and/or sodium acetate, then directly reduced with hydrogen gas over a PdCl2 / BaSO4 catalyst in a large (30 L) hydrogenator (see Photo 6). Hydrogenolysis reductions are very common in the Far East; however, in the classical Asian methodology, the ephedrine/pseudoephedrine is first reacted with thionyl chloride to form the intermediate alpha-chloro-methamphetamine, which is then reduced with hydrogen over a palladium based catalyst. The laboratory operators also recrystallized the finished product from ethanol and water, to give apparent “Ice” methamphetamine HCl. Twenty eight kilograms of 99% l-methamphetamine HCl (packaged in Evian® water bottles) were recovered during the seizure (see Photos 7 and
. Analysis was conducted with GC, IR, and CE. This is not the first ephedrine/pseudoephedrine hydrogenolysis laboratory seized with the assistance of the Southwest Laboratory; however, such laboratories are rarely encountered.
