BATH, Maine — Bath police and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested two people they say were operating a “one-pot” methamphetamine lab out of a foreclosed, multi-unit apartment building at 50 Elm St., just two buildings behind the Bath police station.
Stacey Dykes, 36, and James Scheider, 38, both of Chiefland, Florida, were charged with Class A felony aggravated trafficking in Schedule W drugs, Lt. Bob Savary of the Bath Police Department said.
Dykes is originally from Bath, according to Savary, but both had moved from Florida into an abandoned apartment in the Elm Street building.
Police had been investigating a suspected meth lab for several days, Savary said.
MDEA agents arrived at the scene at 10:30 a.m. Friday with a search warrant, and detained the two without incident, according to Savary.
“While in the apartment agents observed a container that appeared to be an active ‘one pot’ laboratory,” he said in a release. “Officers immediately evacuated the apartment building and secured the area.”
The MDEA’s Clandestine Drug Laboratory Enforcement Team, the Bath Fire Department and Maine Department of Environmental Protection assisted at the scene.
The charges were elevated to Class A because 50 Elm St. is within 1,000 feet of Morse High School.
Savary said children live in other apartments in the building but not in the apartment where Dykes and Scheider were arrested.
“It’s a dangerous situation because of the volatile nature of the chemicals used to manufacture the illicit drugs,” Savary said.
Scheider and Dykes were taken to Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset with bail set at $5,000 cash each. They are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 13, 2015.
According to Savary, this is the third alleged methamphetamine lab in Bath, following one found in 2008 and another last year.
The arrests mark the 24th suspected meth lab Maine drug officials have discovered this year, an all-time high.
On Tuesday, drug agents arrested a Lewiston couple on similar charges.
Bath Police Chief Mike Field praised the quick action of the law-enforcement agencies that collaborated in Friday’s raid.
“Their quick and decisive investigative work quite possibly prevented a tragedy in the multi-family apartment complex as well as kept a large amount of illicit drugs off our streets,” Field said.