A Maxville man who had been living in a Glen St. Mary trailer park was arrested the afternoon of July 26 for operating a meth lab at his residence off George Taber Blvd.
Police acted on a tip from a neighbor that had been passed on to the park landlord Josie Davis and arrested Bradley Griffis, 20, while seizing ingredients and other equipment from a bedroom at the residence he rented on Twin Oaks Lane.
Among the evidence seized was a plastic bottle that sheriff’s investigator John Hardin described as a “sludge pot” of cooked ingredients used to manufacture the highly addictive methamphetamine.
Mr. Griffis told the investigator and other officers at the scene he was advised on how to make the drug by another inmate while in jail, but that his earlier attempt to do so had been unsuccessful.
“It didn’t turn out good; it didn’t get me high,” the suspect was quoted by the investigator as saying.Mr. Griffis’ name had turned up two days earlier on a national data base for purchasing 96 tablets of the key over-the-counter ingredient pseudoephedrine from Walmart. It is sold to relieve cold symptoms, and when confronted with the information the suspect initially said he had a cold.
He then claimed he sold the pills to someone else but the empty packages were found in a bedroom at the trailer, as were items like acid, lye, batteries and baggies.
The “sludge pot” was found at the rear of the trailer by Mr. Davis after receiving the tip from a source who saw Mr. Griffis cooking it.
When authorities went to the address about 12:40 pm, the suspect was not there but several others were. Shortly after, he arrived in a vehicle.
Manufacturing meth and possessing ingredients are both felonies.
In another drug-related arrest, Joseph Albino, 18, of Glen was charged about midday on July 28 with misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
He was a passenger in a Toyota SUV stopped by Deputy Robert Simpkins in west Macclenny for speeding. The suspect had a small baggie with loose pot and several cigarettes in a pants pocket.
The driver, Tyler Pendleton, 18, of Macclenny, was ticketed for speeding, driving on a suspended license and violating license restrictions.