VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – The Drug Enforcement Agency’s Southwest Lab is where chemists and techs are working to analyze and dissect what drugs are coming off the street and what’s inside them. It’s also about being able to figure out what new and potentially rising trends for narcotics are in our community.
“We have about 30 chemists here that are analyzing drug evidence on a daily basis,” James Malone, Lab Director of DEA Southwest Lab, said.
The role of these chemists, according to the lab’s director, is to analyze the drugs, report what they find, and sometimes testify in court.
“We'll analyze a lot of cocaine that comes off the Pacific Ocean, as well as large seizures that come across the southwest border of cocaine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and we see probably the most amount of fentanyl that any forensic laboratory will see in the United States,” Malone said.
Sometimes they will also go out into the field to help figure out what drugs are found in seizures.
“Back 24 years ago when I analyzed things. Like, honestly, I never heard of fentanyl. It wasn't really a drug. It was a pharmaceutical. Rarely ever see it. Now it seems like half my samples of fentanyl,” Dean Kirby, a forensic chemist, said. “We're also hearing the statistics, or we're seeing reports of the overdoses even in our own communities, and so we know what we're analyzing; unfortunately, if it's not captured in time, it goes to a user who may end up overdosing and dying.”
Their work is vital to make sure more dangerous drugs stay off the streets and out of people’s hands.
“At DEA, our focus still is fentanyl and opioids,” James Nunnallee, DEA Special Agent in Charge for San Diego and Imperial Counties, said.
Nunnallee said outside of fentanyl, our region is seeing quite a lot of meth as an issue.
“We see a lot of methamphetamine, and the methamphetamine that we see is the highest purity of anywhere in the country,” Nunnallee said. “It's nearly 100% pure, all of our seizures. We are flooded with methamphetamine. It is extremely cheap and very abundant.”
According to the DEA, here in San Diego and Imperial counties, methamphetamine seizures are up by more than 25 percent an fentanyl powder seizures are up by 37 percent from a year ago.
Not to mention, deaths from fentanyl have dropped by more than 50 percent here in San Diego over the last four fiscal years, per the DEA.
So ABC 10News asked the Special Agent in Charge what’s the next trend here in San Diego.
“What I have my eye on is the evolving landscape of synthetics,” Nunnallee said. “It's new drugs, they're new chemicals, new analogs being shaped and sold to look like fake pills or other substances targeting specific demographics and age groups.”
The DEA said their work still continues and the analysis is a big part of finding out what’s on the streets and what’s on the rise.
“A lot of things are the first time that it's ever been seen, and our laboratory is here to help identify those things,” Malone said. “As well as we will put out a bulletin to other state and local partners to make sure that they're aware that this is something that we're seeing and to assist them in identifying drugs as well.”
Something the chemists take pride in doing as a part of their work.
“It's definitely satisfying to know that we’re helping to save lives. Here we're seeing it every day,” Will Langston, Forensic Chemist, said. We're seeing the work that comes across our bench every day is drugs that are off the street.”
