The Mountain Grove seizure appeared to be the largest in Missouri history, although the state does not maintain an official count of meth labs per raid. But Jason Grellner, commander of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit, who is considered an expert on the law enforcement issues surrounding meth, said he believed the previous titleholder was a bust in Troy, Mo., several years ago that netted 91 meth labs. The biggest number he ever heard about was 502 meth labs found in one town in Iowa.

A single “meth lab” could consist of one chemical-filled plastic bottle or the discarded remains of chemicals used to make the drug. The “meth lab” definition is an inexact one.

It is unlikely that all 95 labs found in Mountain Grove were active, Grellner said. Meth cooks sometimes run into a problem of disposing of old meth labs — putting them out with the trash would only arouse suspicion — and so they just keep them.

But, Grellner said, the Mountain Grove incident will not be counted as 95 separate meth incidents in year-end statistics. At the most, he said, it would be four incidents, one for each location on the property.