Medical call leads to discovery of booby trapped meth lab

Published 1:01 pm Thursday, August 9, 2012

Deputies and medical personnel responding to a call of a person who had overdosed on some sort of substance led to the discovery of meth labs and a couple of booby traps comprised of improvised explosive devices.

Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department Chief Investigator Donnie Saucier said the department responded to the call at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at 402 Joe Smith Rd., concerning a woman who had overdosed. When emergency personnel arrived, deputies noticed several active methamphetamine labs on the back porch.

Narcotics investigators were called to the scene and a warrant was secured for the home, he said. Saucier said the active methamphetamine labs and evidence of old cooks were discovered during the search. Outside the home some objects were located that appeared to be booby traps, the chief investigator said. The department then called in agents with the U.S. Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms division of Homeland Security, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the Biloxi Police Department’s bomb squad. Biloxi PD’s bomb squad is the only responding bomb squad in the Gulf Coast Region, Saucier said. EMS personnel with AAA Ambulance service and firefighters with McNeill Volunteer Fire Department were on standby during the event, he said.

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A search conducted by the bomb squad located two improvised explosive devices, said Sgt. John Campbell with the Biloxi PD bomb squad. He described the devices as potentially lethal.

Only one person has been charged so far with the presence of the methamphetamine labs, 37-year-old Robert Lumpkin who gave an address of 81 Crab Apple Lane, Carriere, Saucier said. He was charged with manufacture of methamphetamine, possession of precursors, conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance and generation of hazardous waste. It is unclear why his address was different than that of the methamphetamine labs.

Investigation into the woman who overdosed is continuing, and Saucier expects more charges to be pressed against Lumpkin, or others, at a later date, which could include charges on both the state and federal levels. He said the woman who overdosed is undergoing care at an unnamed medical facility.