Meth lab investigation results in two arrests

By Robert Sorrell

Two people were arrested on methamphetamine charges on Monday when officers went to a Bluefield Avenue apartment to serve an arrest warrant.

Agent Tim Matthews and Deputy Issac Rhea of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department went to 1293 Bluefield Avenue on an anonymous tip that Dustin Austin, 24, was in the apartment. The officers learned Austin was wanted on two outstanding warrants and may have been operating a meth lab.

Matthews wrote in a report that Austin answered the door and Jessica Carden, 24, was lying on the couch. Carden, who resides at the apartment, gave officers permission to search. She told officers her little girl was in the back bedroom.

Matthews said he noticed a propane torch sitting in the floor in the back bedroom next to the bed where the little girl was sleeping. Two syringes and a spoon with residue were also located in a bathroom. Carden told officers the items were not hers and multiple people had been in the apartment.

Another agent arrived and the officers conducted a further search of the apartment. Officers found bottles of drain cleaner and plastic tubing in a back pack by the front door and cut-up lithium batteries, empty blister packs and multiple needles in the kitchen trash.

The officer said he explained to the residents that the items were precursors to the manufacture of methamphetamine. Austin then allegedly admitted that the items belonged to him. Austin said he had only been in the apartment for one night and he had been cooking meth, but not in that location.

Austin was arrested and transported to the Carter County Jail. He has been charged with initiating the process of methamphetamine manufacture. He has also been served with three violation of probation warrants and an attachment out of juvenile court.

Carden was allegedly in possession of one capped needle and several small white pills, which were identified as Ketoralic Tromethamine. She was later found to be in possession of eight Valium pills. Matthews reported that officers found numerous piles of animal feces in the child’s room as well as puddles of urine in the floor.

Carden was arrested and charged with maintaining a dwelling where narcotics are sold or manufactured, possession of Schedule IV drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of legend drug and child endangerment or neglect.