Multimillion-dollar meth houses: Drug dens found in Adelaide’s wealthiest, leafiest suburbs

Multimillion-dollar homes in some of Adelaide’s most exclusive suburbs are being used as meth houses and mega cannabis production factories.

The inner suburb is leafy, green with rose gardens, lorikeets and expansive parks.

The house is slick, modern, and, not that long ago, smelt of chemicals.

It’s on the market and expected to go for more than $1 million – not a bad turnaround for a home that was previously used as a meth lab.

An environmental health worker, who wanted to wanted to remain anonymous, explains it’s practically been ripped apart by the pre-sale process: stove removed, light fittings taken out, airconditioning unit replaced, carpets and blinds and most of the furniture gone.

Even some trees had to be cut down in the back yard because of chemical disposal in the soil.

The previous tenant had been cooking up a storm while living alone in this large home that commanded rent of $750 a week.

Adelaide’s most exclusive suburbs aren’t free from drug labs, with SA Police saying backyard labs can produce 120kg of meth every week.

It’s believed he would have been making thousands of dollars, all while smoking his own product all over the house and leaving tens of thousands of dollars in property damage – not all of it can be covered by insurance.

The stereotypical image of a meth lab house – or even one where meth is smoked, if not produced – is a rundown place in the outer suburbs.

But an investigation by The Advertiser found multimillion-dollar homes in some of Adelaide’s most exclusive suburbs are being used as meth houses and mega cannabis production factories, according to drug contamination site cleaners who work across the state.

Specialist cleaner Michelle Williams, director of Lillium Cleaning, and drug testing business Test Australia, say the cost of a clean-up can range from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the degree of contamination.

But they are concerned that some unscrupulous operators exaggerate test results in order to charge more than is required for remediation.

Ms Williams works all over Adelaide cleaning drug-damaged homes.

She said she was surprised to see the areas which have emerged as the most likely for her staff to be called to for clean-ups.

Lillium Cleaning managing director Michelle Williams said she was surprised to see the areas which have emerged as the most likely for her staff to be called to for clean-ups. Picture: Supplied

O'Shea's senior specialised cleaning manager Eddy Kazaniecki said he had seen “elaborate” and “expensive” properties in Adelaide’s wealthy inner suburbs – that rent up to a few thousand dollars a week – used as cannabis growhouses. Picture: Brinley Duggan

“I would say the number one area for meth contamination clean-ups because of smoking and use has been Mount Barker – and people may not believe me when I say this, but I’d say Burnside, then Prospect and Kilburn,” she said.

“I have also seen meth labs in Myrtle Bank.”

The median house price in Burnside is $1.5 million for houses in Burnside and the median there is $700 per week.

Blair Swanson and Eddy Kazaniecki from O’Shea Services have worked for more than a decade cleaning drug-contaminated sites. They also say they are being called to drug labs in some of Adelaide’s wealthiest pockets.

“You see very organised operations in the inner eastern suburbs – big operations in very expensive houses that would rent for thousands of dollars a week and homes that are worth several million dollars,” Mr Kazaniecki said.

“I guess they (renters) are all seeing it as a return on investment (on high rent payments) if they are making enough money out of it.”

Mr Kazaniecki said he had seen “elaborate” and “expensive” properties in Adelaide’s wealthy inner suburbs – that rent up to a few thousand dollars a week – used as cannabis growhouses.

“(They can be) entire two-storey houses where every room in the house is used to grow marijuana,” he said.

Methamphetamine labs have been spotted in Myrtle Bank.

“Whole houses” have been left water damaged by drug growers’ with “ventilation, watering systems, electrical systems and high humidity temperature control”.

He said “whole houses” were left water damaged by the drug growers’ “ventilation, watering systems, electrical systems and high humidity temperature control”.

He had even seen floorboards pulled up so that people can grow bigger marijuana plants.

“We can (see) drug labs and (cannabis) grow houses in rentals that are $300-400 a week and rentals that are thousands of dollars a week – it’s all just a game, they (the renters) just scam everybody, don’t pay their rent, use fake IDs, one month later they are gone” Mr Kazaniecki said.

He said that often people rented Airbnb’s in well-off areas for a big meth cook-up over a couple of days before going to another address to cause more damage.

Ms Williams said the meth manufacturing around Adelaide is a “clearly growing” problem and that “drug makers are getting smarter”. She said they have learned many different ways to make meth – using different active ingredients. So cleaners never know what toxic chemicals they might have to face.

She estimated there are more than a hundred active meth lebs in the Adelaide metropolitian area, with the popularity of the drug meaning its production and use were now breaking through socio-economic lines.

Under state regulations, when a property is being sold or re-tenanted, there is an obligation on the vendor to test for drug contamination if there is a reasonable basis to believe the house was used for drug use or drug manufacturing.

Eddy Kazaniecki said he has seen floorboards pulled up so that people can grow bigger marijuana plants. Picture: MATT LOXTON

SA Police said specific information on drug lab locations was not generally available but may be possible to obtain with a Freedom of Information request.

While not all former meth labs are reported to police, The Advertiser previously revealed that in 2020-21, police busted nearlyone a week around Adelaide.

They were found in every suburban area with no particular concentration in wealthy suburbs.

SA Police have previously said backyard labs can produce a staggering 120kg of meth every week.

A stack of toxic chemicals can be left on surfaces and in walls and carpets. It can be lithium, mercury from thermometers, turpentine, nail polish remover, paint thinners and borax.

Dan Neil from Adelaide-based Test Australia, a business which tests for drug contamination on behalf of property owners around the country, said that around one in every 20 meth houses he works on are in well-off suburbs or houses worth at least a million dollars.

He said that in very rare cases, entire walls and ceilings have had to be removed and replaced.

“This is small-scale meth production too, not like you the type you see from big factory-like labs. It’s the kind of low quality stuff that leads to people losing teeth and getting marks on their skin a lot quicker,” he said.