NATICK - It was two weeks before Christmas, and Route 9 was jammed with shoppers trolling through the retail wonderland.
Michael Chartier, 41, of Waltham, blended right into the hustle and bustle, stopping up and down the highway on the afternoon of Dec. 10.
He shopped at several stores in Natick, picking out items on a curious shopping spree. With US Drug Enforcement Administration agents shadowing him, he visited an auto parts store, a sporting goods store, and a department store, and then to Room 117 at the Travelodge in Natick. There, authorities later alleged in court documents, Chartier and another Waltham man, 36-year-old Daniel Almada, had stockpiled boxes of a commonly found decongestant, a torch, and piles of other equipment.
The men, authorities allege, were set up to "cook" small amounts of a controlled drug, methamphetamine, from a toxic mix of chemical solvents and pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in some over-the-counter decongestants. Chartier and Almada, arraigned separately in Natick District Court, have pleaded not guilty to charges of possession of and intent to distribute methamphetamine.
"What's contained in the police reports is not completely accurate. It's not the full story," said Terrence Kennedy, a lawyer representing Michael Chartier and his brother Paul. Paul Chartier was previously arrested on similar charges, and also pleaded not guilty.
Also known as "crystal meth," "ice," "speed," "crank," and "poor man's cocaine," the drug has been used by at least 10 million Americans, according to the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse, since it first emerged on the West Coast in the late 1980s. Now, the fastest-growing areas of abuse are poor, rural parts of the American Midwest. Especially hard-hit areas of states such as Indiana and Missouri have had to build bigger jails to cope with the sharp rise in arrests of addicts and dealers, and expand foster-care programs to care for the children they leave behind. But New England has re mained relatively untouched, with fewer than a dozen arrests for meth manufacturing across all six states last year, according to the DEA's New England Division.
Agency officials said meth labs are still a rarity in Massachusetts - authorities shut down only two alleged operations last year - and the drug is far less problematic than abuse of opiates like heroin and a prescription painkiller, OxyContin, helped in part by new laws limiting over-the-counter sales of pseudoephedrine.
"The bad news is we are seeing some of this. The good news is that we are out in front of it," said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.
Although only 10 people were arrested for manufacturing meth in Massachusetts over the last three years, the DEA's New England Division has trained thousands of local police officers and state troopers to spot the chemical smells and items commonly used to make meth, such as glass beakers, starter fluid, and torches.
"We're not looking at a meth hub yet," said DEA spokesman Anthony Pettigrew. "But there should be a healthy fear of meth in any community. It can absolutely devastate communities."
Authorities are fearful that there could be a ground-floor effort to create a Massachusetts market for the deadly drug, which is increasingly made in small batches in portable "box labs" that can be easily moved. For that reason, Leone and Pettigrew called the Natick case worrisome.
It doesn't take long for an addictive drug like meth to find an eager community of users. Heroin was once considered an urban drug injected by hard-core users, "but today, it's cheap, snortable and has became a serious problem in the suburbs," Leone said.
To fight meth's spread, lawenforcement agencies are focusing on a population of experienced drug users, said Leone. They gather intelligence from the drug world, including reports on what, and how much, is being moved along established transport routes from New York - the Mass. Pike to Boston, Interstate 495 to Lawrence, Lowell, and Lynn, he said.
"It's also useful to know how demand for a drug is created, and how did the supply get a foothold in other communities," Leone said. "When a drug is being introduced to a region we ask, 'Are these small-time entrepreneurs, or part of something bigger?' "
According to a search warrant request by Massachusetts State Police, DEA agents and local officers began to suspect Michael Chartier after his brother, Paul, 34, was arrested last summer. On Aug. 8, a bag of trash placed outside Paul Chartier's home on Howe Street in Framingham burst into flames after being tossed into the back of a municipal garbage truck.
While investigating the incident, police said, they found drug-making paraphernalia and receipts from local pharmacies. Detectives said they looked at security videos and pseudoephedrine logs from the stores, and found Michael Chartier's name.
Detectives went to the contracting business in Framingham where the brothers worked, but Michael ran from the scene, according to the search warrant request.
On Dec. 9, the warrant documents say, a DEA agent driving along Route 9 saw one of the contracting company's trucks parked at the Travelodge. Michael Chartier had been staying there for several days registered under his own name, first in Room 122, then moving to Room 117.
After getting a search warrant based on evidence from Michael Chartier's Route 9 shopping trip, police moved in at 2 p.m. on Dec. 11. They arrested Chartier in the motel parking lot. He was holding a propane torch and had a glass vial of meth in his shirt pocket, according to a Natick Police Department report.
However, defense lawyer Kennedy said "the accusations have painted this picture of these two brothers that is completely inaccurate."
Simply having items associated with meth production does not mean a person is a criminal, said Kennedy. "You can go into almost anyone's house and find these ingredients. These are common household products," he said.
The Chartiers are not hardened criminals, said Kennedy, adding that he feels they will be scapegoated because of the hysteria surrounding meth.
The court is willing to release Michael Chartier from jail into a residential rehab program while awaiting trial, but his family has been unable to find an open bed for him. "The lack of resources for the uninsured who need help is very frustrating," Kennedy said.
Two weeks ago, Almada turned himself in to Natick police after learning of a warrant naming him in connection with the Travelodge bust.
Authorities said the investigation into the alleged drug ring is ongoing, and they are seeking two more men who may be involved.
The Natick Travelodge took measures to clean up Room 117, said Viran Patel, a spokesman for the $75-a-night highway motel. Its staff had no idea guests were allegedly using combustible ingredients to make an illegal drug in the ground-floor room, and cooperated with police in the case, he said.
Patel said he believes it was mere happenstance that Chartier and Almada chose his motel instead of somewhere else along Route 9.
"The circumstances happened, but we have tried to handle it," said Patel.
Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com
