Staff report

A Blanchester resident brought what he believed to be the components of a methamphetamine lab to the Blanchester police station on Thursday evening, July 2. He recently purchased a Highland Avenue home and said he found the materials in a bag on the property, according to Blanchester Police Chief Scott Reinbolt.

Police officers evacuated the municipal building which is adjacent to the police station, as well as a city park on the property, and called the Blanchester-Marion Twp. Fire Department as a precautionary measure due to the volatile nature of methamphetamine lab components. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was contacted and sent an agent to Blanchester to examine and neutralize the contents of the bag.

According to the BCI agent, the bag contained volatile waste products from the production of methamphetamine. The occupant of the home prior to its sale to the current homeowner was an adult male whose criminal record includes methamphetamine production, Reinbolt said.

During the late summer of 2014 the home was the subject of numerous tips about drug trafficking received by the police department, according to Reinbolt. “Those tips were investigated and surveillance was conducted on the home, but we were not able to develop probable cause sufficient to obtain a search warrant for the residence,” he said.

“This seems a good time to remind residents that if they should find anything they believe is connected with the production of methamphetamine, they should leave it in place, get away from it, and call police. Many of the components of that process are extremely volatile and toxic.”