It was a crisp April day when drug agents stormed the worn farmhouse hidden among the grape orchards of Kerman. Raul and his brother raced into a bathroom near the rear of the house and locked the door. They tried to stay calm, crouching behind a shower curtain. Raul was breathing heavily.

He heard the wooden floor planks rumble outside the door. Seconds later agents burst in and yanked him and his brother from the shower. On their clothes were traces of hydriodic acid, a key ingredient in methamphetamine.

More than a dozen people were arrested, pulled from bedrooms and the shed. The man who was living at the house told agents he was paid $1,000 to let them use it for a few days. He said he didn't know them, that he had no idea what was going on. He was arrested, but later released.

"That cook -- it was a spur of the moment," Raul says. "I didn't really want to do it. I didn't scope out the house. I didn't even know the guy who ran the house." In hindsight, Raul said, it was a mistake. But at the time, a deal was a deal.

He had been given the address to the farmhouse a few nights before and was told he would have three days to do "what you've got to do." The man on the phone had offered him $40,000.

It was money he couldn’t refuse.

Raul and his two-to-three man crew would arrive at the "good cook" places on the outskirts of Modesto -- places hidden behind sheets of wheat, alfalfa and almond orchards. Word of mouth led them to certain property owners, who would let them use their garages, wooden sheds or small homes for the right price - about $1,000 for a day or two. Here, they would set up make-shift labs to make a key meth chemical, unwinding tubes underneath heating mantles and glass 22-liter flasks, around plastic buckets of water, pounds of iodine, kilograms of red phosphorous.

The crew would work in the dark. Light, Raul says, could mess up the chemical reactions. His head still throbs when he recalls the stench - the smell of sulfur - that would permeate the cramped quarters, piercing his skull, parching his throat. He and his crew would sleep in a room near the lab. Someone always kept watch.

Raul’s crew would cook five or six times a month, usually setting up 10 22-liter flasks at each lab to make gallons of hydriodic acid. When Raul first started, one 5-gallon cylinder of acid would sell for $5,000. The price has now more than doubled in some parts of California.

Raul knew his job well.

Just a year before, Raul’s cousin had introduced him to a friend, Salvador Alcala. Raul had been a small-time marijuana and cocaine dealer, but Salvador told Raul about a bigger and better job: He could make hundreds, maybe thousands, a week doing simple tasks and making purchases for him and his brother, Gabriel.

In early June 1994, Raul became a “runner” for the Alcala brothers.

The Alcalas, a Fresno family, would make the arrangements: scouting garages, sheds and homes for cooks, and dealing directly with customers. Salvador showed Raul where to buy chemicals in Oakland and Concord, and the Alcalas would wire him money to make the purchases - $5,000 for 200 pounds of iodine; $12,000 for 900 pounds of iodine; $20,000 here, $50,000 there.

Raul says he made $500 a week, minimum: “The money was incredible.” When Raul joined the Alcalas, they were working for Raul Rincon. Authorities believe Rincon, a Modesto resident, operated hydriodic acid and meth labs throughout the Valley. But after three years of working for Rincon, the brothers decided to promote themselves and start their own labs.

Raul says they stole about half-a-dozen of Rincon’s customers and employed his two veteran cookers. In a matter of months, the Alcala operation expanded - more customers, more money. To keep up with demand, Raul had learned to make the acid. With the expansion, the Alcala brothers brokered a new agreement with Raul: He would get an equal share of the money they made from sales. He didn’t.

Raul said the Alcalas made him feel as if he were a dog scampering after scraps. When they made $100,000, he would get $5,000. Raul left the Alcalas in early 1995 and started his own operation.

In just 10 months, 25-year-old Raul went from being a Fresno drug dealer to a leading cook and chemical broker in the San Joaquin Valley. Raul paid most of his family's expenses, including child support for his 5-year-old daughter, but the family had no idea how he was doing it. He would often leave his Fresno home wearing a crisp business suit, carrying a brief case. His mother would tell him to stop whatever it was he was doing. He could get hurt, shot, killed. She prayed for him. He never confessed to her how he was paying the bills.

On April 27, 1995, Raul and his brother left their Fresno home at 7:23 a.m. in his red Nissan pickup. Raul had an address and an assignment. Routine business.

He didn’t know that narcotics agents were watching his every move. (Surveillance of Raul, his home and the people he had contact with had begun less than a year before.)

Agents followed Raul to "Fresno and Madera Ice & Liquor Store" and watched as he and his little brother loaded more than 100 pounds of block ice into the camper shell. The pickup then headed west and stopped at a farmhouse on North Humbolt Street in Kerman.

From a distance, agents spotted a wooden shed about 25 feet east of the farmhouse. An assembly line of men was carrying white buckets and opaque containers to and from the shed into the house.

A search warrant was issued and agents swarmed the property. A lab was found in the northeast bedroom of the farmhouse. Five 22-liter reaction vessels were seized - four were being used to store the acid; acid was being distilled in another. About 55 gallons of hydriodic acid were removed - enough to produce about 220 pounds of meth.

Street value: Roughly $10 million.

Postscript:

--From June 1994 to April 1995, Raul purchased chemicals and laboratory equipment worth more than $200,000 to manufacture hydriodic acid and methamphetamine. Stemming from the April 27, 1995, raid Raul pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy charges to manufacture methamphetamine and launder money. He has 10 years remaining on his 15-year federal prison sentence.

--Raul saw his daughter for the first time in five years on Father's Day, during a surprise prison visit. "One of these days, I will have to tell her why I was in prison all of these years. Right now, I don't think she comprehends... I know to wait. But someday, I'm going to tell her the truth."

--Raul’s brother received a lesser sentence and was released from prison less than two years ago. He no longer lives in California.

--Salvador and Gabriel Alcala and their associates purchased 20,434 pounds of iodine and 1,145 pounds of red phosphorus during a 22-month period. The chemicals were used to produce enough hydriodic acid to make more than 8,000 pounds of methamphetamine. In December 1996, Salvador and Gabriel were each sentenced to 19 years, 6 months in federal prison. Drug agents connected the men to “one of the largest and most active drug manufacturing organizations in Central California.” Salvador is serving his term at a federal institution in Loretto, Penn. Gabriel is serving his term in Bakersfield. Both are scheduled to be released in 2012.

-- Agents connected the alleged ringleader of the operation, Raul Rincon, to a meth lab in Coulterville, where in 1995 they seized 20 pounds of ephedrine. A meth lab also was discovered at Rincon’s Modesto home on Kenneth Road. He remains a fugitive. Agents believe he fled to Mexico.

-- By Crystal Carreon