NEW VINEYARD — Three people face charges after police raided an uninhabited house and seized chemicals and equipment alleged used to make methamphetamine, Maine Drug Enforcement Agency Commander Darrell Crandall said Tuesday.
“This is the first confirmed lab seized in Maine this year,” Crandall said.
Members of MDEA’s Clandestine Drug Laboratory Enforcement Team executed a search warrant at 96 Fenwick Road on Friday, Crandall said. The rural road is off High Street, which is off Route 27.
“Agents and chemists assigned to the team converged on the (property) early Friday, and were at the scene collecting evidence for most of the day,” Crandall said.
William Bart Christopher, 39, of Farmington, was arrested on charges of felony trafficking in schedule W drugs and violation of conditions of release, Crandall said.
He was out on bail for an unrelated unlawful furnishing scheduled drugs charge, he said. Christopher resides primarily in Missouri, he said.
Nancy Barden, 57, and Charity Haines, 29, were each issued a summons on a charge of trafficking in schedule W drugs, Crandall said. They both live in Franklin County, he said, but he did not immediately know the towns.
During Friday’s investigation, team members donned chemical suits and carried air monitoring equipment to process the crime scene, he said.
The materials being used in the lab to manufacture the drug were highly explosive and very flammable, Crandall said.
MDEA was assisted at the scene by Farmington police, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department, Maine State Police, Farmington Fire Department and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
If convicted, the suspects face up to 10 years in prison.
“Maine’s meth lab activity has been on the decline following state and federal legislation that restricted the sale of the methamphetamine precursors ephedrine and pseudoephedrine,” Crandall said.
Since April of 2005, MDEA’s lab team has investigated 64 reports of lab activity, seizing 15 labs or laboratory dump sites, he said.
If anyone has information on drug labs or any other drug related crime, Crandall asks them to call the MDEA at 1-800-452-6457 or leave information on the MDEA Web site: www.maine.gov/dps/mdea/drugtip.html
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