Police found the DMT lab in an apartment complex. Police say DMT is a hallucinogen that can be ten-times than LSD. These types of operations are rare and police only know of three in the entire state.
Cleanup crews worked well into the night to safely dispose of this suburban Mountain View drug lab. It was discovered earlier in the day when police and a SWAT team raided two adjoining apartment complexes on Bush Street. They served four search warrants and found a DMT lab.
"Dimethyltryptamine, it's a hallucinogen, fast acting, illegal, and from what we know so far, this may be the first lab of this kind in the Bay Area," said Mountain View Police Sgt. Sean Thompson.
Police were tipped off by neighbors. One neighbor, who doesn't want to be identified, says people would come and go from the apartments at all hours and she says, it smelled.
"They had this little BBQ on the side and they were never cooking anything, but you could smell burning plastic," said the neighbor.
DMT is found in plants. Shamans in the Amazon are known to use it in a ceremonial drink called ayahuasca.
Up close it looks like a yellow crystal, but police didn't find any finished product since it was still in the process of being made. So they found frozen plant material, broken down plants, acid and other unknown chemicals. They also recovered heroine, meth, marijuana, and several guns and other weapons.
At least three people were arrested. The man who owns the building says he knew his tenants smoked a little, but had no idea about the lab.
"Sometimes they're a little late on the rent, but I don't hear anything illegal or fighting or something crazy going on," said Ernest Louie, a building owner.
Police do expect to make more arrests. They haven't released a dollar amount on what the lab could have produced, but they say a gram of DMT goes for upwards of $900.
