Pair Charged for Running Meth Lab in Cranston Apartment Complex

Two Cranston men are in federal custody after local and federal authorities raided their Cranston Street apartment on Wednesday and shut down a meth lab they allegedly were operating in close proximity to a large number of elderly residents.

Nicholas Selser, 33, and Michael Fortes, 48, both of Cranston, allegedly manufactured methamphetamine inside their D’Evan manor apartment and had cooked up at least 11 batches using the “one pot” method prior to Wednesday’s 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.

Both Selser and Fortes are charged with one count each with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine; manufacture of methamphetamine; possession of precursor chemicals to manufacture methamphetamine; and possession of equipment, products and material which may be used to manufacture methamphetamine.

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

Photo: City of Cranston