Police raid suspected meth lab near Blairs

Two anonymous tips and six months of investigation led to a raid on a Pittsylvania County house suspected of producing and selling methamphetamine.

The Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Office applied for a search warrant Thursday and searched the house that evening.

A tactical team went into the home at 4913 Mount View Road, but left immediately after smelling ammonia, a common ingredient meth cookers use to make the drug.

“If you enter the house and there’s some strange odor, you back out of the house for safety’s sake,” said Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor.

The Blairs Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad, Danville Hazardous Materials Response Team and Virginia State Police Methamphetamine Team responded, clearing the officers and the house. Taylor said no one was injured.

An initial 911 dispatch call said that there had been a chemical explosion at the residence, but Taylor said deputies were only exposed to chemicals. There had not been an explosion, he said.

Taylor said his office had people on the scene Friday until about 2 a.m., and investigators found “paraphernalia and documents” in the house, according to the search warrant.

Other evidence they found supported the warrant, Taylor said. His office is continuing to investigate, and Larry Dale Williams has been named a person of interest, he said.

Williams has six felony convictions in Virginia and two convictions in North Carolina for distribution of cocaine, according to an affidavit for the search warrant.

The investigation began when dispatchers received an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers in March. The caller said the resident of the house on 4913 Mount View Road received a shipment of “‘crank and oxycodone,’” according to the affidavit. Crank is a common term for meth.

Another person called in August and said that people use meth in the house. That same month, investigators began stopping cars seen leaving the home.

They found prescription pills during those traffic stops and more information that the resident of the house sells and uses methamphetamine. The medications were not prescribed to the drivers or passengers who had possession of them, documents stated.

Officers used that information to file an affidavit for a search warrant at 5:10 p.m. Thursday.

The sheriff said that most people envision a high school chemistry class when they hear about a meth lab.

“The perception is you have this clean, pristine laboratory,” he said. “It is not like that in many cases. It’s very rudimentary.”

The area has been fortunate and has not seen much meth use or labs, Taylor said, noting that he is not saying Pittsylvania County doesn’t have the labs.

“We know it’s in the area,” Taylor said. “We’re not sticking our heads in the sand.”

He said that law enforcement has been warned that the drug is spreading from the West Coast to the East Coast, but it seems that its growth slowed when it got to Virginia, he said. His office still prepared for the drug with the help of the Department of Justice, which trained local law enforcement and gave them the special knowledge and skills needed when raiding a meth lab.

The chemicals that cookers use to make meth can be deadly if mixed incorrectly, which poses a threat to anyone near the lab.

Thursday night’s raid is the first confirmed meth lab in Danville and Pittsylvania County. Crack cocaine remains the region’s most-used drug, but a new illegal drug may be creeping into the area.