A crackdown on U.S. methamphetamine labs has sparked a proliferation of meth production in Mexico, from ranches in Baja California to industrial parks in Guadalajara, the Los Angeles Times reported Nov. 26.

A Guadalajara drug bust in January uncovered a huge lab, with 11 pressure cookers that could make 400 pounds of methamphetamine per day -- far more than the 20 or so pounds a day typically produced by "superlabs" in California.

Following U.S. restrictions on meth-making chemicals, many ex-convicts and fugitives from the U.S. relocated to Mexico, including a former chemistry professor from Idaho who set up his own meth lab south of the border.

The Mexican labs use huge shipments of precursor chemicals shipped in from Asia to make meth for the U.S. market. Both legal and illegal shipments of chemicals and products used to make meth have increased in Mexico in recent years.