ELKLAND - A Lawrenceville couple was charged with operating a methamphetamine lab out of their home on State Street here. According to documents filed at District Judge Brian Edgcomb's office, Amos L. Preston, 34, and his wife, Keri Preston, 34, of 43 State St., were charged by Lawrenceville police with operating a methamphetamine lab, disposing of the waste illegally and manufacturing meth with children present, in addition to other drug charges.
On Aug. 11 officers executed a search warrant for Preston, who was wanted on a bench warrant issued in March. While executing the search warrant issued by Edgcomb at the residence where the Prestons reside with their four children, all under the age of 18, police found in the house two Coleman combustible fuel jugs, an unlabled pill bottle, two glass jars containing an unknown amber fluid, three one-hitter marijuana pipes, a glass tube, four containers of butane fuel, four Alert tablets, a Mason jar cooking device, four lithium batteries, a heat torch, scraping tool, razor blade, a wooden box with nine butane lighters, a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner, a butane torch, four tubes, a spoon with white powder residue on it that will be tested for suspected meth/cocaine, an Altoids tin with three tubes inside, lithium batteries with no wrappers and a black torch.
In the garage, outbuildings and around the property, police said they found nine Coleman fuel cans in a garbage pile in the yard, one quart of Naptha, one 12-ounce liquid heat, two 11-ounce Pyroil starting fluid with puncture marks, one box of Melitta No. 4 coffee filters, rubber tubing, a box from Rite Aid containing Sudephedrine, 20 empty blister packs, 20 packs of decongestant, more stripped batteries, a 20-ounce Gatorade bottle containing white residue, a Fiji water bottle with lithium, ephedrine, Coleman camp fuel and other precursors that were actively cooking, known as a one-pot vessel, in a kitchen drawer in the garage, police said.
Marijuana and drug paraphernalia also was found.
The Prestons were jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail each and their preliminary hearing was set for Aug. 23.
