Meth bust third this year in Star City
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
A METH BUST at a Blake Street apartment in Presque Isle occurred April 18, after the tenant was hospitalized for burns he received while reportedly manufacturing the drug. Here, officials with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Environmental Protection sort through evidence found at the site.
By Kathy McCarty
PRESQUE ISLE — MDEA agents have made another meth bust in Presque Isle, marking the third time in four months evidence of the manufacturing of methanphetamine has been discovered in the Star City — a fourth case was investigated in Easton since January.
The latest case occurred at an apartment at 23 Blake Street, near the intersection with Third Street and almost across the street from the site where Cunningham Middle School once stood.
“MDEA’s laboratory enforcement team was in Presque Isle on April 18. Team members mustered at the fire department on Wednesday morning to execute a search warrant at an apartment on Blake Street after the 35-year-old male occupant of the apartment was badly burned on Tuesday and taken to the Maine Medical Center in Portland,” said MDEA Division Commander Darrell Crandall.
The man’s name, nor his condition, were being released at presstime, pending further investigation.
“It is believed the burns were caused by an accidental fire created during the process of making mathamphetamine by what is commonly referred to as the ‘one pot’ method,” Crandall said.
The structure was secured overnight and MDEA agents obtained the search warrant Wednesday morning.
“Agents and chemists were on site for several hours gathering evidence. MDEA agents have interviewed the injured man but no charges have been filed,” he said.
Agents found evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing as well as several loaded handguns during their search.
Officials with the Presque Isle Police and Fire departments, as well as the Department of Environmental Protection, assisted at the scene. According to Presque Isle property tax records, the apartment building is owned by Robert A. Ragona of San Francisco.
In an unrelated incident, an employee of a Van Buren garbage disposal company was taken to the hospital, evaluated and released, following exposure to fumes and smoke from a garbage bag that contained remnants of a meth lab.
‘On Monday, April 23, members of the MDEA’s lab team responded to the St. John Valley town of Van Buren. The employee had emptied an industrial dumpster and one of the bags caught fire. He attempted to put it out and inhaled fumes,” said Crandall.
Van Buren firefighters secured the debris and MDEA was called in to process the evidence. The investigation is ongoing.
Crandall said officials are concerned by the number of meth labs that have turned up in such a short period of time in one region of Aroostook County.
“It is a very disturbing trend that this represents the fourth incident in recent months where evidence of a lab has been found because something went terribly wrong during the process. Fires in Aroostook and Franklin counties as well as these two recent incidents have all been reported since December,” said Crandall.
In addition to last week’s find on Blake Street, labs were also discovered in Presque Isle at a Main Street apartment on Dec. 29, 2011; officials investigated evidence found at a Sunset Loop residence on Feb. 13; and agents charged the occupants of a Bear Trap Road residence in Easton on Feb. 1 following an investigation by the MDEA.
“The overall response to lab incidents have significantly increased as well. These responses cost taxpayers several thousand dollars every time we have to send this team and also to secure the resources of DEP and local fire and police departments,” said Crandall. “While we seek restitution from the suspects, we don’t realistically expect to see much from that.”
Agents continue to investigate both the Presque Isle and Van Buren cases. Charges may follow in both incidents.
Anyone with information about suspected illegal drug activity is asked to call the MDEA at 800-452-6457, visit the MDEA website at www.maine.gov/dps/mdea or look for the agency on Facebook.
