Houlton Couple Charged in Meth Lab Case [UPDATE]
Maine Drug Enforcement Agents were in Houlton Friday to dismantle a suspected meth lab being run out of a house on Hillview Avenue.
The discovery was made overnight by Houlton Police, who had gone to the house on an unrelated matter, according to Public Safety Department spokesman Steve McCausland. The residents were evacuated and Houlton Police and Fire Departments secured the house early Friday. MDEA’s lab response team arrived around noon to begin the process of searching the single family house.
Team members entered the house wearing protective suits and breathing equipment, due to the highly explosive nature of the drug-making components. MDEA Commander Peter Arno said Friday afternoon that lab team members located and seized numerous items of evidence consistent with the manufacturing of meth.
Police arrested 25-year-old Bryan Clark and 22-year-old Ashley Eastham, who live in the Hillview Avenue home. Both were charged with Class B Trafficking in methamphetamine.
Because there were three young children in the house at the time the lab was discovered, the Department of Health and Human Services has been notified, Arno said.
The Aroostook County Sheriff's Office and the Dept. of Environmental Protection were also on the scene Friday.
This is the 19th time this year the MDEA has responded to a meth lab in the state, one less than in all of 2013.