IMLER - Evidence indicates two people cooked methamphetamine Friday in a backpack lab outside the King Township building and fire hall, leaving paraphernalia scattered on Imler Area Volunteer Fire Department property before the chief discovered it, state police said Monday.
Crystal Lynn Burket, 29, of Imler, and Edward Duane Mack, 48, of Crystal Springs allegedly left behind equipment used for the portable "one-pot" method of meth preparation, police said.
Imler Volunteer Fire Chief Rick Long discovered the equipment on Friday night.
"He was picking up trash off the property. ... He starts seeing these soda bottles with white residue in them," state Trooper Dustin Sosak said. "He thought, 'Whoa, this isn't right.'"
The bottles were scattered throughout the area, Sosak said. Long called the police, whose lab response team was already investigating another meth lab, he said. Long was not available for comment on Monday.
The one-pot cooking method involves mixing flammable chemicals and drug compounds in a plastic bottle.
While police awaited the lab response team's arrival, they spotted a man and woman behind a nearby township trash container, Sosak said. Interviews and a search warrant revealed a backpack allegedly filled with paraphernalia.
"Inside the backpack, basically, was a lab," he said.
Sosak said he has "no clue" why they would allegedly make the drug within view of a government office and fire station.
Burket and Mack are both charged with conspiracy, possession with intent to deliver, possession of red phosphorus with intent to make a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernia.
