Apartment meth labs concern police
Just one week after a meth lab was found at Buckingham Apartments, a second lab has been found, this time at Dogwood Point Apartments, located on the same road a quarter-mile away.
According to Sheriff’s Investigator Jackie Matheny Jr., lawmen raided the Dogwood Point Apartments residence of Daniel Davenport, 30, this week after receiving information the suspect was making methamphetamine inside his apartment.
“The smell could knock you down when you walked in,” Matheny said of the tell-tale odor of meth production. “It would have been hard to miss.”
Matheny said officers found multi-layered liquids, iodine and other chemicals and materials used in the production of meth. Davenport is charged with manufacture of meth.
His arrest came less than a week after city lawmen raided a residence at Buckingham Apartments, which is also located Bybee Branch Road, just inside the northern city limits. Dogwood Apartments, located about a quarter-mile north of Buckingham, is located just outside the city limits. The prior raid at Buckingham involved finding a lab which a suspect had hidden inside his mother’s apartment.
In both cases, drugs were reportedly being manufactured in densely populated housing complexes which is of great concern to lawmen. Specifically, investigators say the manufacture of drugs in densely populated areas such as apartment complexes can pose a health hazard in two ways.
First, the toxic fumes emitted into the air when cookers gas off can cause damage to lungs and have been shown to cause cancer. Second, chemicals used in the production of meth are highly flammable and have been known to cause explosions and fires, something which is magnified in apartment complexes where residences are connected.