Three people have been arrested in connection with making methamphetamine in the Livermore Falls area, following searches of three homes Friday.
Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents and local law enforcement executed search warrants on three residences in Jay and Livermore Falls, making the arrests and uncovering an active meth laboratory as well as other evidence of methamphetamine production, said Scott Pelletier, MDEA commander for southern Maine. Pelletier was speaking Saturday morning at the scene of the suspected laboratory in a Livermore Falls mobile home. Agents in dark green hazardous materials suits and respirators were outside the home depositing residue from the crude laboratory into a secure hazardous materials canister.
Christina Stanford, 35, and her boyfriend, John Josey, 44, of 249 Fayette Road, were arrested by agents at that home, Pelletier said.
Brittany Pomerleau, 29, was arrested at 14 Adams Road in Jay. She is accused of buying and providing items to make methamphetamine the same day she was arrested.
All three were charged with unlawful operation of a methamphetamine laboratory, a class B felony and are being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, Pelletier said. Stanford and Josey are at the Androscoggin County Jail, and Pomerleau is at the Franklin County Jail.
Agents found products used to make methamphetamine in another residence at 6 BJ’s Lane in Jay, but no arrest was made, according to Pelletier.
Producing methamphetamine involves mixing hazardous and volatile chemicals and there is a risk of explosion or fire, so law enforcement sealed the residence after making the arrests.
The MDEA Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team returned to the Fayette Road mobile home about 10 a.m. Saturday to search and secure the residence with assistance from the Livermore Falls fire and police departments.
The agency, along with the Livermore Falls, Jay and Wilton police departments has been investigating methamphetamine production in the area for about a month, Pelletier said.
The investigation is ongoing, and more arrests are expected as agents identify suspects who might have bought materials to make methamphetamine, particularly Pseudoephedrine tablets, a common decongestant that can be bought in small quantities without a prescription.
When agents searched the Fayette Road home, they found Josey allegedly in the act of mixing methamphetamine in his living room using a used plastic soda bottle — a practice referred to as a “one pot” method, Pelletier added.
In a news release issued Saturday afternoon, MDEA said agents had uncovered four other one-pot laboratories in the residence as well as manufacturing components including ammonium nitrate, Pseudoephedrine tablets and camp fuel.
Stanford’s 14-year-old son lives at the residence but was not at home at the time of the search and arrests, according to the agency. It said it has notified Department of Health and Human Services about the teenager.
According to Pelletier, this is the 13th methamphetamine response this year. There has been an eightfold increase in the number of labs uncovered in Maine in the past five years. According to Pelletier, in 2011, agents dismantled seven labs, compared to the 56 they dealt with in 2015.
Peter McGuire — 861-9239
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