Five People Arrested After Lexington County Officers Bust Three Meth Labs

Three men and two women have been arrested on drug charges after Lexington County officers busted three meth labs.

Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team officers seized meth labs from homes in Swansea, Pelion, and Leesville on Sunday, February 23rd.

At 8 AM on Sunday, officers responded to a report of a loud domestic fight at a home on West Second Street in Swansea. When they arrived, deputies found a duffel bag with meth lab equipment in an abandoned home adjacent to that of Brad Joseph Koon, Sr, 44. Officers arrested Koon on drug charges for running a meth lab.

In a separate bust, officers were assisting the South Carolina Highway Patrol with an investigation into a motor vehicle accident around 9 AM on Sunday. The investigators went to a home in Pelion, and found a plastic soda bottle inside a large plastic container, which deputies identified as a meth lab reaction vessel, outside of the house. Officers arrested the residents of the house, Taylor Michele Hatchell, 24, and James Elliott Smith, Jr.,31, and charged the pair with several meth-related charges including manufacturing methamphetamine, altering pseudoephedrine and unlawful disposal of waste from a methamphetamine lab.

That Sunday afternoon, in another unrelated meth lab arrest, officers went to a home in Batesburg-Leesville to investigate a reported domestic dispute. Officers found a meth lab in the woods near the house, and arrested Diane Poole Gay, 54, and Ronnie Dale Stevenson, 52, on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine, possessing methamphetamine and unlawfully altering pseudoephedrine and unlawfully disposing of waste from a methamphetamine laboratory.

All of the suspects are being held in the Lexington County Detention Center.

Home-Based and Portable Meth Labs Becoming Common in South Carolina

An investigation reported by WIS discussed the prevalence of “mom and pop” meth lab operations in South Carolina. One law enforcement officer interviewed, Lt. Max Dorsey, says that meth labs operate in normal homes all over the state.

“All the cooks don’t have PhDs in chemistry,” said Dorsey. “Very few of them have high school diplomas.

“Meth in South Carolina is being manufactured in these mom and pop labs and they have been refined to these drink bottles. These two-liter, one-liter, or sixteen-ounce drink bottles, you put these ingredients in these vessels, you let the reaction occur, and you let it dry, and then you consume it, you smoke it, you snort it, you inject it.”

“You need some type of ether, whether it’s Coleman fuel or charcoal lighter fluid, ice packs, fertilizer, lithium,” said an undercover agent. “I mean these are all items that are fairly inexpensive and you can pick them right up at any pharmacy or Walmart.”

With the rise of portable meth labs, which can manufacture a small amount of crystal meth in a soda bottle, drug criminals are becoming harder to catch. They leave evidence of their activities in the woods, in backyards, in homes that they do not own or live in, constantly. However, because these new forms of meth labs are so small, they do not have to babysit several reaction vessels and more often than not get away.

The Strom Law Firm Can Help with Drug Crimes Charges for Meth Labs

Drug crime charges and meth lab busts in South Carolina are very serious. If you have been charged with possession, trafficking, or manufacturing drugs, including manufacturing at a meth lab, the attorneys at the Strom Law Firm can help. We offer free, confidential consultations to discuss the facts of your case, so contact us today by calling (803)252-4800.