After the bust, a drug processing lab was set up by state drug agents on a sidewalk in the city's upscale Laurel Heights neighborhood.
Neighbors say they knew something was suspicious. It was a house that had loud parties and lots of people coming and going all the time. But it wasn't their complaints that led to the demise of the drug lab.
State drug agents from the Department of Justice have been hauling out what they describe as the ingredients needed to make methamphetamines. And they believe they found the chemicals needed to make GHB, also known as the date rape drug.
The drug lab downfall began Wednesday afternoon when police came out to the house for some other reason. Police are not saying why they came out to the house, but the conversation led to officers having reason to go into the flat and find a treasure trove of dangerous, flammable and potentially explosive drug-making chemicals.
"You have cooking beakers running through the kitchen sitting on the stove top, using heat and open sources of flames to cook the materials. So this is an extreme fire danger," said San Francisco Police Capt. Richard Corriea.
"It is a very quiet, suburban sort of street where everyone knows each other. Now all of a sudden some folks appear carrying on late at night, people coming and going all the time. Really, I don't want to say suspicious, but it was. It was unusual activity," said neighbor David Alexander.
Three men and two women were arrested on a laundry list of felonies, including drug manufacturing and possession of stolen property. Four of the suspects live in San Francisco.
