GLEN ALLEN, Va. -- Being forced to show identification at the entrance to your neighborhood is not necessarily the welcome home you'd want after a hard day at work, but it's what some Henrico residents got Thursday afternoon when their community was temporarily paralyzed by an apparent drug-making operation. Safety gear was visible from far away, with evidence buckets in tow, as Virginia State police and firefighters surrounded a pick-up truck in the 11-thousand block of Branch Road in Glen Allen to dismantle and destroy a dangerous meth mix.
"Information was received that there was a truck occupied by a white male and white female that appeared to be involved in illegal dumping," Henrico Police spokesman Lt. Chris Eley said. "During the investigation, the male (positively identified as James Kent Booth) provided officers with false identification and was placed under arrest. Officers began to inventory the vehicle operated by Booth. During the inventory, officers located a mobile clandestine methamphetamine laboratory within the vehicle."
Booth, 53, of 15300 block of Mountain Road in Montpelier, was charged with one count of providing false information to law enforcement.
James Kent Booth (PHOTO: Henrico Police)
"Once the laboratory was located, officers secured and evacuated the area. Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Virginia State Police responded to render the laboratory safe and dispose of the hazardous materials," Lt. Eley said.
Police said ingredients to make the dangerous drug and a soda bottle to cook it in were recovered from the vehicle.
"It makes you wonder if there's a safe place to be anymore, especially when you have children," said Michele Smoot, who lives not far from where the truck was parked.
Police say they methodically diffused the situation. When cleaning up a meth lab, no part of the body can be exposed.
People living in that northwest Henrico neighborhood say it was weird to get carded as they came home. "It was very scary to see police at the end of the street and have to show them your ID,” Smoot said. “It makes you wonder."
It made some wonder how bad it could've been, if an alert neighbor hadn't seen something and said something. “It’s nice to have someone paying attention. Hopefully this doesn't happen again," said Smoot.
The woman in the truck was detained was released. Police sources say the man will more than likely face charges related to today's incident.
This is the second meth lab bust in Henrico County this year. State police and Henrico are working Thursday’s mobile meth lab as a joint investigation
