Two-day clean up of meth lab finds 120 chemicals

Cleanup crews have found more than 120 different chemicals in a red phosphorus methamphetamine lab discovered this week at a Williamsville home.

Clean up began Thursday and is expected to continue through Friday evening, with more than a dozen 55-gallon drums already filled with hazardous materials.

The lab was discovered by deputies with the Butler County Sheriff’s Department during the execution of a search warrant Wednesday afternoon at Floyd Everett Martin’s home in the 100 block of Moonstone Lane, off of Highway JJ.

A hazardous material technician examines a piece of glassware as he prepares to dispose of it.

Martin is currently being held at Butler County jail with no possibility of bond, facing the felonies of unlawful possession of firearm by a convicted felon and resisting arrest after deputies found a rifle and ammunition in his home. A bond was originally set, but was rescinded Thursday by Senior Judge John Bloodworth.

Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs earlier described the lab found in Martin’s basement as the most complex one he had ever seen.

The home was secured by law enforcement and a government-contracted hazardous materials team of out of Fenton, Missouri, arrived Thursday afternoon to begin cleaning up the site. The cost of the cleanup is being paid for by the Drug Enforcement Administration,

Officials estimated there were probably 500 pieces of glassware and laboratory equipment in the room.

Crews worked all afternoon Thursday, but had to “stop because they ran out of containers, and they are using 55-gallon drums,” Dobbs explained.

“We had to put a deputy on it for the past two nights to secure the scene in order maintain the validity of the search warrant,” Dobbs said.

On Friday morning, the sheriff said, the private contractor, as well as officers with the sheriff’s department, SEMO Drug Task Force and DEA, returned to the scene.

“They’ll be out there until late (Friday) evening,” Dobbs said.

piece of glassware seized from the basement of Floyd Martin's Moonstone Lane residence is held up. In the background are numberous other items seized from Martin's basement, where he allegedly was operating a methamphetamine lab.

Since the lab’s discovery officers have determined it was a red phosphorus lab, Dobbs said.

A red phosphorus lab reportedly does not use anhydrous ammonia in its manufacturing process.

“It wasn’t active in terms of having finished product, but it was functioning,” Dobbs explained. “The chemicals, definitely everything was there to produce methamphetamine, but there wasn’t anything in the finishing stage.”

“The crews said there were in excess of 120 different chemicals they were having to deal with,” Dobbs explained.

“At one point, the private contractor felt overwhelmed and considered asking for outside help,” Dobbs said. “It’s very uncommon for them to have to clean up a site this big with this many containers.”

When Dobbs was at the scene Friday morning, he said, a dozen 55-gallon drums already had been filled.

Since methamphetamine labs have “became a thing of the past, we were certainly caught off guard by having to do the clean up of something this size,” Dobbs explained. “Us and the task force, put together, are not equipped to handle this (level of) contamination.

“Even when (meth) was pretty predominate, we didn’t have the capability” of seizing “truck loads of items.”

In addition to the items found in the basement, Dobbs said, officers found some more lab equipment upstairs “they’re still working to process. I’m not sure what it is.”

Dobbs said additional state charges will be sought against Martin for manufacture a controlled substance, and federal charges may also be sought.

Deputies originally sought the warrant for the home while assisting the Missouri Children’s Division with a wellness check on the three children, who ranged in age from 11 to about 5, living in the home.

The Children’s Division had information alleging there was drug paraphernalia inside the home, as well as firearms and unsanitary living conditions, Sgt. Richard Bruder said earlier.

When deputies realized what they had found Wednesday afternoon, as well as “how complex it was and how poorly ventilated it was, they backed out,” Dobbs said.