LEWISTON – For a time, it was just Matt Cashman and Tom Slivinski inside the Sabattus Street apartment suspected to be a methamphetamine lab. Outside, the street had been closed, and was knotted by firetrucks, ambulances, police cars and media crews. The city manager was there, as were the chief of police and the district attorney.

The eyes of the city were on them. But the pair had bigger things to worry about.

Cashman, a Lewiston police officer, and Slivinski, an Androscoggin County Sheriff’s deputy, are two of roughly a dozen cops trained to investigate meth labs in the state. Though both left the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency three years ago, they were called in immediately on Jan. 25 when it was reported that a meth lab was operating on Sabattus Street.

“You can’t train for just one type of lab,” said Cashman. “There are hundreds of different methods to produce methamphetamine. We have to be trained for all the different types.”

They wore specialized suits and respirators as they moved through the apartment at 624 Sabattus St. The risks for the first people in at a known lab are many. The array of chemicals could explode or ignite in flash fire. Noxious fumes could be inhaled. And meth manufacturers are known to booby-trap their labs with bombs, guns and other devices.

“They’re delusional. They suffer from paranoia,” Cashman said. “The more they are using, the more paranoid they become.”

For Cashman and Slivinksi, the priority was to examine the apartment and determine what the risks were. They needed to clear a path for chemists and other investigators. There were more than a half-dozen agencies involved in the investigation on Sabattus Street, but the pair represented the very front of the front lines.

The duo processed the meth operation on Sabattus Street without explosion or other calamity. In training exercises – such as the two in Bangor earlier this week – they have seen chemists and other officers blown away by mock booby traps. It’s not the kind of work that can be rushed.

Cashman and Slivinski both worked for years as drug agents working in the Lewiston area, working undercover to bust men and women trafficking in more familiar drugs like crack cocaine and heroin. But with talk of meth moving East, both officers were sent to Quantico, Va., to be trained in the investigation of meth labs. They were both certified, but the training continues. Now they are part of a specialized team in a state where meth really has not yet announced itself.

“The whole team is made up of very dedicated and very motivated officers,” Slivinski said. “Maine is attempting to get ahead of the curve,rather than lagging behind.”

Which is precisely the idea behind the Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team. Administrators at the Lewiston Police Department and the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department allow their officers to keep working with the team, because it’s good to have a little know-how in case large-scale meth operations make their way to Maine, as most experts predict they will.

“We need to be on the forefront of this,” said Lewiston deputy police Chief Michael Bussiere. “Even though it hasn’t caught on like it has on the West Coast, we need to be prepared and trained in case it does.”

According to Maine Public Safety Department, the rise of meth use may happen sooner than later. Since the start of the year, the MDEA reports that it has investigated 24 reports of suspected meth lab incidents, of which seven were founded. Two were in Portland; the others were in Allagash, Auburn, Caribou, Lewiston and Poland.

At three of the sites – Auburn, Caribou and Lewiston – children were present. During that same period, the MDEA has made 40 arrests where meth was the primary drug involved. Half of those arrests were for sale or manufacturing. About a pound of meth was seized during this time period.