Arrest made in meth lab discovery
A West Virginia man was arrested Tuesday on a warrant charging him with making methamphetamine using a new method known as “shake and bake” in a motel room last year in North Franklin Township.
The Washington County district attorney’s drug task force sought the warrant for Brent Wayne Englund, 32, of Salem, who was arraigned on a string of charges Tuesday before District Judge Robert Redlinger.
The investigation into Englund began Jan. 30, 2016, after a member of the cleaning staff at a Ramada Inn, 1170 W. Chestnut St., found suspicious items in one of two rooms he had reserved at the motel, court records show.
Washington County 911 dispatched a North Franklin patrolman to the motel, who then notified state police after the officer found a portable meth lab and ingredients needed to cook the drug in the room.
The state police Clandestine Laboratory Response Team was called into the investigation, and it believed meth had been cooked in the room based on gas readings taken with equipment, a detective stated in the affidavit supporting the criminal charges in the case.
Video surveillance at the CVS in Washington and at other stores in the area allegedly showed Englund and an unidentified man purchasing items found in the motel room, the record indicates.
The “shake and bake” method of making methamphetamine is also known as the one-pot method, uses a sealed container that is flipped upside-down to cause a chemical reaction.
Englund faces charges of manufacturing a controlled substance, possessing ingredients to cook meth, operating a meth lab, risking a catastrophe, drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct.
Redlinger sent Englund to Washington County jail without bond.