Four arrested in meth lab bust

Four people were arrested following a meth lab bust Thursday in Lacey’s Spring community.

Katherine Kmetz, 40, and Jerime Jenkins, 29, were both arrested and charged with unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance first degree, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. Both are being held in the Morgan County Jail where they are being held on $1,000,300 bond each.

George Rogers Jr., 29, of Coffee Bluff Road and Stephanie Cryer, 22, of Union Grove Road were both arrested and charged with loitering in a drug house.  Both were being held in the Morgan County jail on $300 bond each.

Sheriff Ana Franklin said the department received complaints from the community of Lacey’s Spring that methamphetamine was being manufactured at 30 Arvida Drive. Drug task force agents conducted surveillance of the residence and the sheriff’s office obtained a search warrant for the home of Kmetz and Jenkins.

On Thursday, Franklin and deputies, assisted by the Decatur Police Department and the Alabama Beverage Control drug unit executed a search warrant at the residence.

“Officers encountered four suspects and six large pit bull dogs behind a high locked wooden fence,” Franklin said in a press release. “Agents were able to back the canines into a location at the residence without incident.”

Agents searched and located an operational mid-sized methamphetamine lab at the residence in an area where the canines were able to roam. Several old labs and components were also located.

“Agents could smell a strong chemical odor around the residence,” Franklin said in a press release. “Agents located finished methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia at the residence as well. An outside surveillance camera connected to a monitor inside the residence was also located.”

Agents found components of two different methods of methamphetamine manufacturing.

“Both the ‘Red-P’ and ‘Shake and Bake’ methods are common to our area,” Franklin said.

Lacey’s Spring Volunteer Fire Department was called to the scene to provide decontamination of the suspects prior to being transported to the Morgan County Jail.

Franklin said this wasn’t the first incident at this location. Morgan County Drug Task Force agents executed a methamphetamine search warrant some years back.

That search located a large meth lab that lead to the arrest of Kmetz and Jenkins at that time, Franklin added.

Katherine Kmetz

Jerime Jenkins

Stephanie Cryer

George Rogers, Jr.