Men Plead Guilty to Running Meth Lab in Cranston Housing Complex

The two men who were arrested in February for running a meth lab in a Cranston housing complex have pleaded guilty to all charges.

Nicholas Selser, 33, and Michael Fortes, 48, both of Cranston, are due to be sentenced in September and have been in federal custody since their arrest in February.

The guilty plea comes after a federal grand jury in March returned an indictment charging them with one count each of conspiracy, knowingly manufacturing methamphetamine, possession of pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine and possessing equipment to manufacture methamphetamine.

Court records show the pair manufactured methamphetamine inside their D’Evan manor apartment and had cooked up at least 11 batches using the “one pot” method prior to as raid by Cranston police officers, members of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Drug Task Force and the DEA’s Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team of New Hampshire.

During the raid, agents seized chemicals, supplies and items used to make meth, which “is often times a dangerous process which may result in explosion or fire,” said U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha.

The “one pot” method can produce meth in about an hour. It entails using an empty container to combine ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, camping fuel or some other ether product, sulfuric acid, ammonia nitrate powder, lithium strips from batteries and lye or some other sodium hydroxide product with water to produce liquid methamphetamine.

The meth liquid is poured off, leaving waste byproduct. Then the liquid is gassed off, producing the final product.

“The containers will often leak dangerous chemicals because the containers cannot always withstand the pressure produced by the chemical reactions,” Neronha said.

City records show D’Evan manor, located at 1214 Cranston St., has an occupancy of 127. The four-story brick apartment complex was built in 1980 and is a senior low-income housing apartment complex subsidized by the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development division.

Fortes, who entered his guilty plea on Wednesday, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith on October 9, 2015. Selser, who pleaded guilty on June 29, 2015, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith on September 18, 2015.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams.