The rise in crystal meth use in Waterloo Region and Guelph is thanks, in part, to Mexican drug cartels.

Meth use has soared in the area over the past several years, and the drug is replacing crack cocaine on the streets and back alleys of southwestern Ontario.

According to Det. Staff Sgt. Bill O'Shea, head of the OPP's Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau, which oversees all of the OPP's drug units in Western Ontario, the cartels have already established transport routes and there are lots of what he calls "super labs" cranking out the meth in Mexico.

"The whole idea of the cartels and drug dealers in general is they want to move their product into the widest amount of territory they can," said O'Shea.

"We don't come across a lot of small labs, just because the product that's coming out of Mexico is 100 per cent pure and it's the same price, and the precursor chemicals are difficult to obtain in Ontario and it's very volatile," said O'Shea. "We have had information of labs, but we haven't uncovered a lab. We found some precursor chemicals this year that were abandoned, but we certainly haven't come across an active lab in western Ontario."

That echoes what Det. Sgt. Ben Bair, the head of the Guelph police's drug unit, is experiencing - rumours and reports of local labs in houses, but none that have panned out. However, police did find a few people who have used pop bottles to make their own meth.

"The cartels are starting to move this sort of thing as well, in a liquid form primarily, and as it soon as it's gotten to that level, it's going to be everywhere," said Bair.

"Locally we're finding it come from areas west of Guelph for the most part," said Bair. "Sometimes it's Kitchener, sometimes it's west of Guelph," said Bair.

If there is a lab in the area, police aren't sure where it is. Bair thinks it's relatively local, and says that much of the meth Guelph cops see comes from the west of the city. Meanwhile O'Shea says OPP investigations in meth have led them to Toronto.

"Our investigations have all led us back into the GTA, that there may be a lab there and I think most police forces are convinced there may be, but we just haven't been able to track it down," said O'Shea.

Wherever the meth is coming from, it isn't going away anytime soon. As of August 27, Guelph police have arrested 46 people this year so far in connection with meth offenses and seized over 157 grams of the drug.