Mat-Su Drug team finds suspected meth lab in Meadow Lakes

WASILLA -- The Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Team busted yet another alleged methamphetamine lab in Meadow Lakes on Saturday, Alaska State Troopers reported.

Following a tip from a local hardware store, investigators followed Michael Wellman, 22, to the residence of Kristopher Simpson, also 22.

Inside Simpson's home, they discovered not only a fully functional meth lab, but also 12 grams of packaged product. Investigator Mike Ingram said that's a pretty big score in the meth world.

"We usually just find meth waste at these labs," Ingram said. "To find 12 grams of manufactured meth at a lab site is pretty rare."

The lab itself was one of the largest methamphetamine manufacturing operations to be discovered this year.

Mike Anderson, an Anchorage toxologist who owns Environmental Compliance Consultants, the company contracted to clean up meth labs in Alaska, said the lab contained the largest amount of liquid waste he has ever seen in Alaska.

"There was almost more than 220 pounds of liquid waste," Anderson said. "We had 35 different jars of unknown liquids and 20 one-gallon jars of known liquids. There was everything you can find in a drug lab; it was as nasty as it gets."

Anderson said his company has cleaned up 11 meth labs around the state in the last month.

When troopers arrived at Simpson's residence, Wellman and Simpson, along with two 17-year-old juveniles, reportedly fled out the back door. Ingram said temperatures that day were below freezing, yet the four suspects ran barefoot and without coats to the nearby house of Simpson's father, where they were arrested.

Wellman and Simpson were each charged with three counts of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance. Simpson was also charged with fourth-degree MICS for maintaining a dwelling while operating a meth lab.

The two juveniles, whose names have not been released, also face three counts each of second-degree MICS, which is a class A felony.

Simpson and Wellman are currently in custody at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, in lieu of $10,000 cash-only bail and a court-approved third-party custodian for each.

Ingram said a clerk at a local hardware store called to report that a man, Wellman, had been coming in every couple of days to buy large quantities of Xylol and acetone, solvents routinely used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

"A growing numbers of store clerks, including convenience store clerks, know what to look for," Ingram said. "People see something wrong, they know it's wrong, and they want to see justice."

Ingram said Wellman and Simpson might have been working for someone else and are likely connected to bigger players in the meth underworld.

The Mat-Su Drug Team has found nearly 40 meth labs in the Valley this year; 66 labs were found in the entire state last year and only 15 were found in 2001, according to the troopers' annual drug report.

But law enforcement officers say meth cookers are setting up labs in the Mat-Su faster than they can shut them down.

"I know we're just scratching the surface," Ingram said. "Hopefully those in the meth world know that people are watching them."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.