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GRAND ISLAND
Deputies arrest three after a tip about lab
Three Grand Island male residents are facing drug charges after Erie County sheriff’s officials uncovered what was described as a amateur “knockoff” methamphetamine lab in their Jenell Drive residence.
Deputies and members of the sheriff’s Hazmat team responded to a tip that there was a methamphetamine laboratory operating inside the Jenell Drive home, near Baseline Road.
Deputies converged on the home at about 4:20 p. m. Friday and discovered a concoction of household chemicals and other items.
“We don’t really know what they were trying to make,” said sheriff’s Capt. Gregory Savage. “It doesn’t appear they had the chemicals to produce methamphetamine. From what they had, they weren’t capable of producing methamphetamine.”
Arrested were Stephen Heilmann, Jeffrey Tefft and Delmas Lowers, all described as in their 30s, of the Jenell Drive residence. Each was charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of drug paraphernalia and a violation count of criminal possession of marijuana.
Tefft, Lowers and Heilmann, who also had an outstanding warrant from the Town of Tonawanda linked to a driving while intoxicated case, were taken to the Erie County Holding Center.
Savage said the three were trying to follow a recipe they’d found on the Internet to make some type of “crystals they could smoke and get a high off of.”
Deputies recovered an aquarium, ammonia, charcoal, aluminum foil, acids and a pair of electrodes attached to a battery, Savage said.
He said the concoction was out together in the “sealed” aquarium.
There was some potential for danger had the tank become unsealed, Savage said, but it was unlikely it would have resulted in an explosion. The sheriff’s captain said a strong smell of ammonia was present in the area, especially in the attic of the house, which was rented.
