O&W Meth Bust Is Second In One Week

September 9, 2004

For Scott County Sheriff's Department officers Anthony Phillips and Rob Reed, the day has been a long one.

It began shortly after 7 a.m., when the two clocked in and traveled to Oneida High School, where they were joined by Grant Lowe of the Southeast-Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force to speak to driver's education students about the dangers of methamphetamine.

Now, just past midnight, Phillips, Reed and Lowe are working to complete their task at an O&W Road residence where they have uncovered a pair of meth labs. As they pull the last of several seized items suspected to have been used in the manufacturing of meth from the residence, Phillips comments that it is "about time for a nap."

"(But) I don't think there'll be any of that anytime soon," he adds.

While their physical work here is almost complete, their shift is far from over. Now that they have searched the residence, located the lab, ensured that no immediate danger to nearby residences exists, and have identified their suspects, the waiting part begins: Waiting for the arrival of a cleanup crew, which will work carefully and methodically to decontaminate the residence. The officers have learned that the crew, which responds from Johnson City, are being held up as they complete decontamination of a lab that was discovered earlier in the evening in upper East Tennessee. All this means that it will likely be dawn before the officers can go "10-8" and back in-service from this residence. And while that means more than 24 hours on the clock, it isn't exactly out of the ordinary for Phillips and Reed.

One week earlier to the very day, Phillips and Reed, along with several other officers from Scott County and Oneida, were on the scene of a meth lab at a Sheppard Road residence in Oneida. As in the case here, cleanup and decontamination of the Sheppard Road residence became an all-night event, with officers arriving on the scene in the late evening hours and completing their duties at around 7 a.m. the following morning.

It's all part of an effort to combat Scott County's seemingly endless drug problem. And while marijuana and cocaine may be the drugs that receive all the hype, it is the lowly methamphetamine that is posing perhaps the biggest threat locally.

"We didn't actually get to start concentrating on meth labs until about two weeks ago," Phillips says. "We've been so busy the last month that a lot of what we hear just goes in one ear and out the other."

But now the officers do have time to focus on meth labs, and it is paying off.

Already, two labs - three labs if Thursday night's two labs are counted separately - have been busted and four arrests made in connection with those labs. At least two more arrests have been made in connection with the use of meth and officers are currently working active tips on several other meth-related cases around Scott County. as one of the supporting officers on the scene at Thursday's meth lab bust quipped, "meth cooks had better beware. These guys are coming soon to a meth lab near you!"

In the first eight months of 2004, only three meth labs had been uncovered in Scott County. And then, with the discovery of the meth lab on this particular night, two labs were uncovered in the span of seven days.

Meanwhile, back at the O&W Road residence, Phillips and Reed request a pot of coffee to be delivered to their location as they patiently wait for daylight to roll around. By then, the cleanup crew should have completed their job and all parties involved can call this mission successfully completed.

The first order of business, after some 24 hours straight on the job, would seem to be to knock off work and get some rest. But there'll be no rest for Phillips and Reed. Not just yet. Now they have their regular shift to complete. And the fight against drugs never ends.

news@ihoneida.com

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