By TODD VENEZIA, ERIKA MARTINEZ and STEFANIE COHEN
December 1, 2006 -- The trailer-park drug known as "hillbilly crack" has been putting on the Ritz lately - as federal drug agents uncovered a crystal-meth lab inside the $6,000-a-month Manhattan penthouse of a bank executive, authorities said yesterday. Michael Knibb, an information-technology vice president at Citigroup, ran the sophisticated drug operation from the living room of his luxury apartment overlooking the United Nations, said Drug Enforcement Administration officials. The 37-year-old Knibb - who makes an estimated $250,000 a year - allegedly told authorities that he had decided to make his own methamphetamines because he could not find a reliable drug dealer after moving to New York from Seattle two years ago. Knibb was one of 10 alleged do-it-yourself drug makers busted this week as part of a federal anti-meth sweep dubbed Operation Red Fusion. Yesterday was National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. The arrests were made after each of the suspects allegedly bought meth-making chemicals from the same Internet sites. None of the suspects were major dealers, and most just made enough for their own use, according to the DEA. Knibb wasn't the only suspect whose profile didn't fit the image of the typical meth producer. Another suspect is Mehmetcan Dosemeci, a Columbia University doctoral student, who told cops he mixed and used the stimulant to boost his studying, officials said. Dosemeci, a native of Turkey, is a Fulbright scholar and a graduate instructor at the school. He was busted after he allegedly made the boneheaded mistake of going online to get one of the prime meth ingredients, iodine crystals, and having it sent to his Manhattan Avenue apartment. DEA agents raided his home in October. The history student might have also gone far in chemistry, since DEA officials said the 1.3 grams of meth they found had a purity of 98 percent. "It's just not as it seems at the moment. It's a big misunderstanding," Dosemeci said at his apartment yesterday. He and Knibb were free on $150,000 bail. Agents described Knibb's operation as "sophisticated" for a small-time meth lab. He allegedly used heating elements from lava lamps to cook up the drug. The DEA said they found 7 grams of meth, refined to 92 percent purity, in his apartment. "To find a meth lab . . . in a penthouse in New York City is shocking, as well a frightening," said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the Manhattan DEA office. Knibb was busted in June after allegedly buying red phosphorus online. The controlled substance is a prime meth ingredient. According to residency records, he returned to Seattle in July of his year and stayed in a drug-treatment center. He could not be reached for comment. Cops also busted Nicholaos Georgopoulos, 29, and Allen Jasovsky, 56, both of whom allegedly brewed meth at a Manhattan Potamkin car dealership on 11th Avenue, where they worked as mechanics. One of the men would keep a lookout, while the other would mix the drug for their own use, the DEA said. Georgopoulos said he had done the drug for only a couple of years - sucked in by Jasovsky, a 30-year addict. "It doesn't mean I'm a bad guy, I just have a problem. I don't want to hurt anyone else, I've hurt myself enough," Georgopoulos said from his home in Astoria, Queens. He said drug use was rampant at the dealership, and that they would cook the drugs behind the opened hoods of cars while they were supposed to be working. In Ridge, L.I., agents arrested Christopher Bigoness, who allegedly had a mobile meth lab in his pickup truck. In addition to the meth, he allegedly was growing "magic mushroom" in his parents' home. His efforts to grow the hallucinogenic fungi, however, caused him to inhale mold spores and sickened him. Knibb, Dosemeci, Bigoness, Jasovsky, Georgopoulos and three other suspects face 20 years in prison, while two others face 10 years. Additional reporting by Murray Weiss and Erin Calabrese
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