Cape Girardeau police make arrest after meth lab found in self-storage unit

A Cape Girardeau police officer on routine patrol Sunday morning discovered a methamphetamine lab operating in a self-storage unit and arrested one man in connection with the incident.

Charles R. Clark, 50, of 2702 Quincy, was charged Monday with a single felony count of manufacturing a controlled substance.

Officers were keeping an eye on storage areas because of recent break-ins, patrolman Jason Selzer said Monday. And when patrolman Henry Voelker spotted a white van leaving Cape Mini Storage, 1915 Golden Eagle Court, about 2 a.m., Selzer said, he pulled the vehicle over.

"He talked to him, but didn't like his answers," Selzer said. The driver said he had dropped Clark at the storage area, Selzer said. When Voelker went to talk to Clark, he smelled ether, one of the main ingredients for making the drug.

According to a probable cause statement filed by Voelker, he saw a chemical cloud seeping under the door of storage units 181 and 157, which are adjacent.

Clark consented to a search of the storage units, Voelker wrote, and when he opened the door a larger "chemical cloud" escaped. "Clark later stated he had a methamphetamine lab in full operation inside the storage unit," Voelker wrote.

A hole had been cut into the wall between the two storage units, Voelker said.

During the search, officers found two cylinders of anhydrous ammonia, salt, muriatic acid and other ingredients to make meth. A plastic bag of white powder tested positive for methamphetamine, he wrote.

The driver of the white van was not charged. "The other guy was saying he just dropped the guy off," Selzer said.

Haz-mat team called

The Jackson Fire Department hazardous materials team was called to help clean up the meth lab.

Jackson firefighters have the regional hazardous material team and storage area for chemicals recovered from meth labs, Jackson fire chief Brad Golden said. Chemicals are stored until they can be neutralized or packaged for disposal, he said.

Despite increasingly strict controls over the material used for methamphetamine, the number of labs being seized in the area is not decreasing, Golden said. "On the contrary, it has been increasing. We get two to three labs a week in the collection station and sometimes we have had as many as seven in one day."

Pseudoephedrine is the key ingredient for making methamphetamine in home labs. Recent laws restricting the sale of the decongestant don't seem to be slowing down the meth makers, Golden said.

But a growing public awareness of the signs of a meth lab could also be a cause for the Cape Girardeau storage area to be used, he said.

"If you smell ether, and you aren't around a car garage, or if you smell anhydrous ammonia, and you aren't on a farm, there's probably a good chance it is a meth lab," Golden said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126