Drug lab probe forces business closures
As officials tried to determine whether one of the largest methamphetamine labs in Massachusetts was involved in drug trafficking, frustrated business owners in the Fort Point district grappled with the inconveniences of being locked out of the eight-story building where the lab was found.
Erik William Joseph, who owns Seaport Hardware on Congress Street, a business below the second-floor loft where a 29-year-old man was found dead Sunday, said the owner of the building told him he may not be able to reopen his store until Monday.
''That's a week of not making any money," Joseph fumed yesterday. ''They shut down the streets. Nobody can get around."
Lieutenant David Pfeil, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said it could be several days before the second floor is cleared of the dangerous chemicals.
''It looks like it's going to be a drawn-out affair," he said.
A block and a half of Congress Street was closed throughout the day and was expected to be so today, Pfeil said.
''Until the area is cleaned up, all those chemicals are taken out . . . the smart thing to do is to maintain it the way it is," he said.
The lab was discovered Monday, one day after Kevin McCormick was found inside the apartment. Police said he died of a heart attack suffered during sex acts and was surrounded by chains, wetsuits, and masks.
McCormick, a 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate with an electrical engineering and computer science degree, was known by his friends as a brilliant artist who created giant sculptures aglow with electronic lights.
''He had no problem being creative," said childhood friend, Tronster Hartley, who went to high school with McCormick in Baltimore. The victim's parents, who still live in the Maryland area, were in Boston yesterday, he said.
City and federal officials said they found a large lab equipped with Bunsen burners, beakers, and vials inside the loft, known as Warehouse 23. MIT campus police visited the scene Tuesday, said Denise Brehm, a university spokeswoman. She said she did not know why they went to the scene.
''This is an investigation being conducted by DEA and Boston police," Brehm said. ''We aren't a player." Officials will try to determine whether those who lived in the loft produced the meth for distribution, said Anthony Pettigrew, spokesman for the Boston office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
''That would be the normal part of the investigation," he said. ''We're going to follow it as far as we can with the evidence that we gather."
On Tuesday, the state Senate passed a bill that would prohibit consumers from buying more than 9 grams of pseudoephedrine at a time. Pseudoephedrine is a common ingredient in cold medicine and the key ingredient in meth. It would also require stores to place drugs with pseudoephedrine as their only active ingredient behind the counter, with consumers required to show identification and sign a log book to purchase them. The House is considering the bill.
Pettigrew said federal agents will review notes, log books, computer filesand other data to understand how much meth or other drugs the lab could make.
The meth manufacturing process involves numerous toxic and flammable chemicals, said DEA Special Agent Doug Coleman, a specialist on meth production.
Pseudoephedrine is crushed in labs, then heated with iodine and phosphorous, often from fireworks or flares, a process that can both cause fires and release poisonous gas, Coleman said. Then the mixture is augmented by acetone or benzene, often taken from paint thinners, brake fluid, or other flammable solutions.
Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. 
