STEWART - The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) arrested two for manufacturing methamphetamine.
Dale Donahoo, 28, of 1 Jacks Road in Winona, and Braxton Cray, 28, of 101 Bermuda in Vaiden were arrested and charged with Manufacturing Crystal Methamphetamine. In an initial court appearance January 28 in Montgomery County Justice Court, Donahoo was denied bail, and bond for Cray was set at $100,000.
According to Montgomery County Sheriff Bubba Nix, after receiving a call about suspicious behavior, deputies and MBN agents found an active methamphetamine lab in an abandoned house on Route 1 in Stewart on Dacus Road.
"They actually had all the ingredients in a container cooking meth," Nix said.
The two suspects fled the scene on foot, and after a foot pursuit, were caught and arrested at the scene.
Nix said the MBN clean-up crew was dispatched from Jackson to dismantle the lab.
"When I took office, pills were the problem," Nix said. "Now it's meth."
This is the second methamphetamine lab discovered in Montgomery County in as many weeks.
Tuesday, legislation to make pseudoephedrine a schedule III drug cleared another major hurdle as the Mississippi Senate passed House Bill 512 by a 45-4 vote. Coupled with the Mississippi House of Representatives vote in favor of the same legislation last week, the bill only needs the Governor's signature to become law.
Law enforcement officers, narcotics agents and public safety officials filled the senate gallery hoping to encourage lawmakers to make a doctor's prescription a requirement in order to purchase pseudoephedrine based medications.
In 2009, law enforcement seized 586 meth labs in Mississippi and made 981 total arrests. Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephen Simpson says he expects those numbers to drop as soon as House Bill 512 goes into effect. So far in 2010, MBN has seized 24 meth labs across Mississippi.
"Pseudoephedrine is the essential ingredient to make meth, and right now, addicts can walk into any drug store in this state and buy pseudoephedrine based medications. This legislation means that won't happen anymore," Simpson said in a release.
Governor Haley Barbour released a statement Tuesday on HB 512. "I commend the Mississippi Legislature for its swift action to address the methamphetamine problem in this state. I look forward to signing House Bill 512, which will make it more difficult to obtain the ingredients for this drug that tears families apart and harms many of our communities. Meth labs threaten public safety, and I don't think there is any doubt we will see a drop in the number of labs in our state."
On Tuesday, February 1 at approximately 6 a.m., the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department, MBN, and the Kilmichael Police Department raided a house located at 800 Kimberly Street in Kilmichael and discovered large amounts of crack cocaine and ecstasy pills.
Nix said the raid came after a tip was received in his office.
Arrests are pending in the case.
Staff reports contributed to this article.
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