Suspected synthetic drug lab raid in St. Paul

Authorities in Ramsey County say they've found a suspected synthetic drug lab in a St. Paul apartment and arrested two people.

The Ramsey County Violent Crime Enforcement Team seized manufactured drugs, equipment and dangerous chemicals. Charges against a 32-year-old man and 23-year-old woman are pending.

Randy Gustafson of the Ramsey County Sheriff's office says the operation appeared to be much more sophisticated than a lab used for making methamphetamine.

"They take like a regular prescription drug and then take away the buffering agents or the starches and things that make it so they're not quite so potent," he said. "They'll pull those compounds out and leave only the drug behind. And then they'll add another compound or two and then make a super hallucinogenic or a super depressant or something like that out of it."

Gustafson says it's the first suspected synthetic drug lab found in Ramsey County and possibly the first in the state.

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