Yep, all these smarty smarts ordering chemistry equipment and drug precursor chemicals from suppliers and sending them (apparently from overseas where they are subject to inspections by customs) to non-lab facility street addresses. The plan is foolproof, no way the authorities will find a crack in that armor /sarc
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Crooks are the smartest people on Earth (just ask them).
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“apparently from overseas where they are subject to inspections by customs”
I interviewed a smuggler several years ago. He showed me grave goods weighing hundreds of pounds. I asked how he got them here. He said, (approximately) “When you land in Belize there are billboards advertising smuggling services. It’s big business like UPS. (It’s not UPS, just similar.) They have lists of stuff leaving the country and lots of businesses are apparently in on it with them. So, they falsify the markings indicating these are copies. They put them in huge shipping containers with similar goods, pottery, stone, etc. Or they stamp them as appropriate for export. The paperwork and stamps look like the genuine article. Usually, they put it towards the back of a container. (The type of container you see on the decks of container ships.) The containers are x-rayed but all the paperwork is apparently good. The first time I shipped something I paid $10,000 cash for I was nervous. But it showed up at my house ten days later. (Via UPS, by-the-way.)”
I went looking for the tonnage of imported goods to get some idea of how difficult it might be to find somebody’s order of chemistry stuff. I couldn’t find tonnage as it would be a poor measure. But the dollar figure is about $2.3 Trillion. Looking for somebody’s $500 order, assuming it was shipped from, say, “The People’s Doll Factory” rather than “The People’s Fentanyl Supply Co.” would make it hard to spot. You would almost have to identify the dealer/chemist first and then watch his mail and UPS deliveries.
https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-imports-and-exports-components-and-statistics-3306270
Perhaps the way to stop this is to use a social media business model and get ordinary people involved in watching suspects. I imagine the elderly could sit in front of a monitor and watch an internet camera set up on a power pole and file regular reports to the police. (Just typing out loud.) But, obviously, what we are doing now, and have done for probably 50 years isn’t working.