Explosion at S. Tahoe apartment lands man in jail on drug charges
By Kathryn Reed
A South Lake Tahoe man blew out the windows of his apartment when he was allegedly trying to extract THC from marijuana using butane.
Arrested the night of March 7 was Samuel Frangella, 22, on charges of drug manufacturing, possession of drug paraphernalia, arson and felony child endangerment. The latter charge is because the couple next door has small children and the law says in a manufacturing case it’s not just the room, but the whole building that is considered the drug lab.
Jeff Catchings, commander of South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team, said Frangella is lucky not to have been burned. With the window of his unit at 1223 Bonanza Ave. being blown out, casting shards of glass at least 100 feet, it kept the flame from staying inside. The interior of the residence was not damaged much either, Catchings said.
Catchings said this is the equivalent of having a meth lab in the middle of town.
“Based on the amount of butane in room, he had enough in there to blow himself up,” Catchings said.
The officer also said the suspect photographed himself extracting the THC.
The end result of such extractions is called honey oil because that’s what it looks like. It can be used in food or smoked.
Catchings also said his job and SLEDNET as a whole will remain intact through the end of this fiscal year with the use of drug forfeiture money. There was the threat the drug enforcement unit would have to disband starting this calendar year. It remains to be seen if SLEDNET will operate past June 30.
lol…..
You know when you’re back in south lake Tahoe,you always see a guy like this riding a bike in a blizzard with not shirt,a reefer hanging out his mouth, 12 pack up over his shoulder.
How high can you get at 6300 foot dude?
It would be interesting to know what he did for a living. Were we taxpayers supporting his habit through housing and food support?
Tahoeadvocate, What do you do for a living? Collect Soc. Security? On the taxpayer dole are ya?
So glad we sold our house over there. Bad enough dealing with the scum bags that hung out at the C&M and ripped people off, now you have to worry about people blowing up the neighborhood!
So stupid! You can get screwed up in this town on almost every corner if you wanted to. Why mess with fire and explosives? We are very grateful nobody got hurt. We still are very blessed to be able to live here though. “Tartuffe” at the Duke Theatre this weekend and next…
Bluebird- I do not recieve any money I don’t work for or receive from money and time I’ve invested. What I’m tired of is working my %&* off while paying taxes to support someone who isn’t willing to support himself and then he almost blows up a building while feeding a drug habit.
Bluebird– By the way, people who have retired and are collecting social security should not be considered on the taxpayer dole. The 15% of their earnings which they and their employer paid throughout their working careers should have been more than enough to support the program without any taxpayer money if it had been invested as planned. The problem we have today is the Congress ‘stole’ their money in the 1960s by moving it to the General Fund to spend anyway they wanted. They funded their nearterm programs with money that wasn’t theirs rather than raising taxes and losing their next election. Don’t blame the workers who have paid in for decades blame the politicians who mortgaged the future of the social security program and never made any effort to pay it off. You and I are now victims of their act.
That’s absolute nonsense BS.
Well said Tahoeadvocate. My mother paid in to SS for 4 decades and has been taxed around 90% rate on it. YES, NINETY. As in she gets to keep 10% of what she worked for all her life. My father put in for 4 decades and died after receiving it for 2.
What are we going to do when the front falls off?
unless tahoeadvocate knows something that we don’t their assertion that this person in subsisting off of taxpayers dollars is completely absurd.
if you havent been paying attention to what the post, this is par for the course. if tahoeadvocate is wrong about their accusations they are an even bigger moron that the person who blew their windows out.
Blue Bird and the Conservation Robot should listen to Tahoeadvocate, he has more brains than both of you put together.
Your both probably standing in line for your Gov. Hand out, get a job and do something for yourself.
Go suck on your Meth pipe in another county, your messing up our town, goodbye
Wow. What a productive commentary section!
Im with the advocate… Unfortuntely I know many of these types in this town and most are growing stuff and collecting government handouts. I bet it’s more than most want to believe. It’s his opinion but I think he’s right… Robot and bird had zero to contribute to this. I too would be interested to know what he did for a living.
Not to defend the idiot in this article, but at least it was only weed and not meth.
Mr. Frangella WAS employed before the incident. He has never been the recipient of government support programs.
Tahoeadvocate- Why make wild accusations when you don’t have all -if any- facts regarding the matter?