My first thought when I read that title was "Inman Village?"
Methamphetamine lab busts have become fairly commonplace in Hawkins County since the meth epidemic hit two years ago, but county narcotics officers crossed into new territory with a lab bust Wednesday in a Rogersville population center.
Wednesday's Hawkins County Sheriff's Department raid on an apartment in the Rogersville Housing Authority was the first time authorities have confiscated a meth lab in such a densely populated area.
HCSD Chief Detective Ronnie Lawson said Wednesday that the lab confiscated at 1030 Locust St. near Hawkins County Memorial Hospital was the less dangerous red phosphorous type, as opposed to the highly toxic anhydrous ammonia type lab more commonly found.
Still, the potential for an explosion and injury or even death of innocent bystanders in the immediate area of the apartment existed, Lawson said.
"Any time you've got a mixture of chemicals and trying to process methamphetamine, you've always got danger," Lawson said.
Deputies received a tip that there was a meth lab at the apartment at 1030 Locust St. and upon arriving Wednesday received permission from the tenant, Donna Lynn Williams, 35, to search the apartment. Aside from finding four adults and three children in the apartment, the HCSD Narcotics Unit allegedly found a meth lab hidden in a bedroom.
"They were getting ready to cook it on a flat-top griddle in the bedroom," Lawson said. "The griddle was hot, and all the products were inside the bedroom."
Although no drugs were confiscated, Lawson said there was evidence of a recent "cook" in the apartment including empty brake fluid containers, liquid heat, iodine, peroxide and other materials used in meth manufacturing.
Lawson said Sheriff Warren Rimer's Narcotics Unit has received training in dealing with meth labs in densely populated areas. Had it been an anhydrous ammonia lab, the immediate neighborhood would have been evacuated during cleanup.
In this case, however, deputies made sure the adjacent apartments were empty before proceeding with the cleanup.
Arrested in the raid was Williams along with Donald Wayne Sellers, 36, 527 Center Pumpkin Valley Road, Rogersville; David Clyde Massengill, 29, Little Pumpkin Valley Road, Eidson; and Patrice Marie Massengill, 31, 735 Little Pumpkin Valley Road, Eidson.
All four were charged with manufacturing meth, felony possession of drug paraphernalia, and three counts of child endangerment.
Assistant District Attorney Doug Godbee said Wednesday there is a possibility that the four could also face felony reckless endangerment charges stemming from the potential of injury or death to neighbors and bystanders had the meth lab exploded. Most often meth labs are found in rural areas away from the public, and this is the first case in Hawkins County involving a lab being found in a population center.
"It's something that we're going to have to investigate further," Godbee said. "We were the first county in Tennessee to obtain a homicide conviction stemming from a meth lab explosion, but that took place in a very rural area, and the victims were involved in the meth manufacturing operation. Finding a lab in the middle of an apartment complex is new territory for us, and it is scary when you've got a lot of kids around and a lot of people.
"We'll have to be able to prove that the defendants' actions created a risk (of injury or death) to their neighbors."
All four suspects and the three children - ages 8, 10, and 14 - were decontaminated, and the children were turned over to the Department of Children's Services, Lawson said.
At the time of Wednesday's raid Sellers and David Clyde Massengill were free on bond from Scott County, Va., where they'd been charged June 1 with conspiracy to manufacture meth and conspiracy to violate the Drug Control Act.
All four suspects were lodged in the Hawkins County Jail without bond pending arraignment Monday in Hawkins County Sessions Court.
This was the 14th meth lab confiscated in Hawkins County so far in 2005.
My first thought when I read that title was "Inman Village?"
[img]http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k102/ETWNAPPEL/calgraphic.gif?t=1238543058[/img]
They take a chance on the lives of so many people just to make their meth. Such a shame stoning is not allowed any more.
_________________________________________________________
HOW'S THAT HOPE AND CHANGE WORKING OUT FOR YA ??????
Hey man that is nothing.......they also cook down their own urine to get the remaining drugs out of it to either take or resale. It is a twisted sick place where you cook down your own pee for drugs. Apparently most of the drug is expelled from the body and comes out in the urine, lord only knows how they found that out.
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
That is some nasty crap.
[img]http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k102/ETWNAPPEL/calgraphic.gif?t=1238543058[/img]
HMMM.... I wonder who would know that.... [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
can you imagine being the testing for that....hey man lets drink pee and see if gets us high....ugh when the substance abuse counselor at work told me that I was in shock!!!! She also said that you can get addicted to meth after having only used it one time.
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
I started to read a story about the dying of frogs , these they make a pain killer 600 times more powerful than morphine, from, non addictive. Yeah, right I thought, I'm gonna sneak down and help the folks finish killing these things- also turns out the folks in this jungle poison their arrows with frog extract, so I guess the sneaking is OFF. I would hate to have to STUDY for the meth drug test and have to boil down the ole pee- but then again, compared to the risk of explosion, maybe urine ain't so bad. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
is that the same frogs they lick and get high from, that too is totally messed up....I don't understand, I can't even fathom how the come up with some of this stuff.
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
No, these are in South America and are used by a really primitive group. The painkiller hasn't been approved by the FDA yet.How do people find this stuff? College- ya gotta study something, and it all starts with someone seeing a dog biting a frog and having a seziure. Then somebody is curious and they do a lab and break it up in to basics. Mushrooms the same way. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] At least that is how we did it, except I never made it to college , just studied real hard in high school chemistry. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks