Photo Gallery | Sheriff: Man hid bag of meth in back of patrol car
Officers with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and Lexington County Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team (NET) arrested two people and seized a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory that officers found at a home near Gaston.
According to Sheriff James Metts, on Friday, February 22, officers arrested 18-year-old Rayne Gunn and 22-year-old Justin James Holt on charges that they operated and unlawfully disposed of waste from a methamphetamine laboratory that officers found at a home on Big Hickory Lane near Gaston.
The report said at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday, deputies went to Holt’s home at 339 Big Hickory Lane, in response to a call from Gunn’s aunt to check on Gunn’s well-being because Gunn had not been in contact with her family for several days, Metts said. Gunn is Holt’s live-in girlfriend.
Deputies encountered Gunn and Holt as they were driving down a driveway that leads to Holt’s home in a gold Chrysler motor vehicle, Metts said. Deputies detected a strong chemical odor emanating from the motor vehicle that they recognized from training that they had received as an indication that Holt and Gunn possessed chemicals that are used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Deputies found a large fire pit in the front yard of Holt’s home that contained remnants of lithium batteries, packages of pseudoephedrine and cans of starter fluid that had been punctured, Metts said. Deputies contacted NET officers in order to further investigate the situation.
NET officers determined that the couple operated a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory at the home and arrested Gunn and Holt, Metts said.
NET officers found that after Holt was placed in investigative detention in a marked patrol car that Holt hid a bag containing methamphetamine behind a seat in the rear of the patrol car, the report stated.
Gunn was being held on Monday, February 25 at the Lexington County Detention Center on bail totaling $15,000. Holt was being held on Monday at the county Detention Center on bail totaling $20,000.
