DEA: Nashua 'One Pot' Meth Lab Trend On the Rise

A Nashua couple recently charged with cooking meth via a "one pot" method inside their Amory Street home represent what state drug enforcement officials recognize as a growing and dangerous trend within illicit drug circles.

The recipe is a volatile mix of over-the-counter cold medicine and household chemicals inside a plastic water or soda bottle.

Lt. David Bailey of Nashua's Narcotics Intelligence Division confirmed that the Feb. 13 arrest of Raymond and Melissa Champagne was the result of a home-based one-pot meth lab. Police discovered the operation after Raymond Champagne was burned during the cooking process. Police said he was allegedly manufacturing the drug while his two children, both under the age of 12, were home.

Following a search of the home, the residence was condemned by the city's Code Enforcement officer.

Although this is the first such Nashua incident resulting in an arrest in recent years, Bailey confirmed that more cases like this are being seen across New Hampshire, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

Last year, drug agents uncovered 42 meth labs around New England, a dramatic increase from just a handful of such drug operations, according to John Arvanitis, the DEA agent overseeing New England operations.

A Feb. 18 FOX Undercover report demonstrates the one-pot method, also called "the boot" method, and includes an interview with an undercover DEA agent who discusses the inherent dangers associated with meth labs including "fires across New Hampshire, where the use of the method has rapidly spread."
                
"If you mix these in the wrong steps or you don't do something properly, it will blow up on you," said the undercover agent, whose identity was protected during the FOX interview. "Everyone we interviewed that's been arrested has had a fire from doing this method. This is very, very dangerous."