Dynamite Found at Storage Site

By BONNIE HAYES

Jan. 8, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

COSTA MESA — Several businesses were evacuated and a freeway onramp was closed briefly Wednesday while authorities removed two sticks of dynamite from a storage locker they believe housed equipment for a methamphetamine lab.

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith said the explosives were found about 9:20 a.m. in a rear unit of the Bristol Street Storage complex.

The garage-sized metal unit belonged to a Costa Mesa man who had fallen three months behind in his rent and had been evicted, Smith said.

When the new tenant arrived Wednesday to clean out the storage unit, he found the dynamite, along with 10 blasting caps, Smith said.

Smith said the dynamite was found in the middle of the locker, which was packed with milk cartons, boxes, chemicals and glass containers, all of which are used to manufacture methamphetamine. Booby traps were also inside, but they had not been set, he said.

After tests determined no toxic chemicals had been released, officials with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad sent a remote-controlled robot inside to inspect.

A pair of technicians retrieved the dynamite, which was detonated Wednesday.

Police were looking late Wednesday for Russell Renison, the man to whom the storage unit was rented.

“It could be that he sublet this place to someone else,” Smith said. “But we do want to find out what this stuff was doing here.”

Businesses were evacuated and streets closed for about two hours near the complex at Bristol and Bear streets. The transition ramps between the Costa Mesa and Corona del Mar freeways were also shut down.

“The problem we had was high explosives inside a metal storage shed,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Charlie Stumph said. “It could have blown pieces of metal all over the place, just like shrapnel.”

While it is a felony to keep dynamite or other explosives without a permit, Stumph said they are often stolen from legitimate dealers or blasting operations.

Smith said it’s not uncommon for people to use storage lockers to manufacture drugs in because they are generally more secluded than a house or a garage.

Police, however, believe the Bristol Street storage unit likely housed the equipment for a drug lab someplace else.

“It was pretty packed with stuff,” Smith said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of room to move around in there.”