DEA RAID ON 'BATH SALTS' MANUFACTURER IS PART OF A NATIONAL CRACKDOWN ON THE DEADLY DRUG

Federal agents' raids of a business and home in Escondido this week were part of a nationwide crackdown on makers and sellers of synthetic drugs that resulted in 91 arrests and the seizure of more than $36 million in cash, authorities said Thursday.
The Drug Enforcement Agency coordinated raids Wednesday in 31 states, seizing 4.9 million packages of synthetic marijuana known as "spice" and material to make 13.6 million more packages, officials said.
In addition, DEA and other law enforcement agencies seized 167,000 packages of synthetic hallucinogens known as "bath salts" and materials to make 392,000 more packets of the drug.
Last year, the San Diego County medical examiner's office added bath salts to its list of deadly drugs and began using a test to detect the chemicals' presence. The agency attributed three deaths to the drugs.
Magic Blends, a business in Escondido, was the DEA's only target in San Diego County. The business is accused of manufacturing and selling bath salts.
DEA agents raided the business Wednesday. They found more than 2,800 packages of spice, 4,631 packages of bath salts and about 4.5 pounds of Alpha PVP, a chemical used to make spice, according to a statement from the agency.
The business had disguised the drugs as "glass cleaners" and "shoe deodorizers," the DEA statement said.
Arrested were Alan Barillas, 20; Simon Hodge, 18; Caleb Grissom, 18; Johnny Oates, 18; and Daniel Pollock, 20. All five were employees of the business, DEA spokeswoman Amy Roderick said.
Magic Blends was tucked in the back of a generic white office building in the industrial 2400 block of Auto Park Way. No signs marked its location on Thursday ---- employees of a nearby business could only point it out as the place DEA agents had raided a day earlier.
Its door was shut and a dark tint covered its windows.
Agents also searched a house in the 3400 block of Ryan Drive, a somewhat rural stretch of ranch-style homes on the southeastern outskirts of Escondido.
The drugs contain chemical cousins of established illegal drugs, such as marijuana, methamphetamine, LSD and cocaine. In some cases, the chemical compounds in the designer drugs have not been specifically banned, forcing lawmakers to play catch-up.
The agency temporarily has banned some of the chemicals found in synthetic marijuana, and President Barack Obama this month signed into law a measure that bans the sale, production and possession of many of the chemicals found in the most popular synthetic drugs.

But experts who have studied the drugs estimate that there are more than 100 different bath-salt chemicals circulating.

Use of the drugs has grown since the synthetic products first hit the market a few years ago. They are readily available for purchase in smoke shops and sometimes even corner gas stations, and at a relatively low price, and that's made them a popular alternative to street drugs.
As the drugs have become more popular, side effects have become evident to health professionals. Doctors and authorities have struggled at times to control bath-salt users who often become feverish and have paranoid delusions that they are being attacked.