Mat-Su drug officers have busy week

March 25, 2005

KATE GOLDEN/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - This week, Valley law enforcement uncovered three methamphetamine labs in five days.

"That's a lot for one week," said Investigator Dwayne Shelton from the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit.

€ Saturday, firefighters from the Central Mat-Su Fire Department found an alleged methamphetamine lab inside a burning house.

The fire was started by a 6-year-old boy playing with gasoline and a lighter behind the house, according to Fire Chief Jack Krill.

The child and his mother, Amber Briggs, who rented the house, were gone for only 15 minutes. When they returned, the house was on fire.

Firefighters tipped off the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit, which responded after the fire was out and confirmed that the materials inside were meth-related, according to Shelton.

The investigation is ongoing.

€ Tuesday, the Mat-Su Narcotic Unit, along with Valdez, Palmer and CDSP police officers, acting on a search warrant, uncovered what they described as a large-scale meth lab in a duplex.

"It's probably the second-largest one this year," Shelton said.

Investigators found several grams of processed meth in four Pyrex dishes, two of which had not been scraped yet.

Shelton said that's "fairly unusual."

"When they get the meth, it's usually scraped up right away. When we serve the warrants, we'll find everything else," he said.

Officers arrested the homeowner, James H. McDermott, 40, and Thomas L. Thomason, 24, both of Wasilla.

McDermott was charged with three counts of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance and one count of fourth-degree MICS.

Thomason was charged with three counts of second-degree MICS, one count of third-degree MICS and two counts of fourth-degree MICS.

Both men are being held at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in lieu of $100,000 cash plus a court-approved third party.

€ Just one day later, the drug unit busted a commercial bus that had been converted into a home off Armstrong Road in Houston, with a warrant for a suspected meth lab - for the second time.

The owners of the bus, Terria Creech, 32, and Nicholas Lee, 22, both of Big Lake, were not home.

Creech and Lee are currently out on bail for a pending meth-lab trial. That case stemmed from a January bust of the same bus in a different location.

Drug-unit officers have not yet contacted them, and the investigation is continuing.

Charges for three counts of second-degree MICS and one count of fourth-degree MICS will be forwarded to the Palmer District Attorney's office.

Contact Kate Golden at 352-2284 or kate.golden@frontiersman.com.