It’s All Trailer Park Until Someone Blows Their Mind Out

Even if it was just a matter of time before methamphetamines showed up in urban areas no one probably expected this:

The trailer-park drug known as “hillbilly crack” has been putting on the Ritz lately — as federal drug agents uncovered a crystal-meth lab inside the $6,000-a-month Manhattan penthouse of a bank executive, authorities said yesterday.

Michael Knibb, an information-technology vice president at Citigroup, ran the sophisticated drug operation from the living room of his luxury apartment overlooking the United Nations, said Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

The 37-year-old Knibb — who makes an estimated $250,000 a year — allegedly told authorities that he had decided to make his own methamphetamines because he could not find a reliable drug dealer after moving to New York from Seattle two years ago.

Knibb was one of 10 alleged do-it-yourself drug makers busted this week as part of a federal anti-meth sweep dubbed Operation Red Fusion.

. . .

“To find a meth lab . . . in a penthouse in New York City is shocking, as well a frightening,” said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the Manhattan DEA office.