Canonsburg raid nets arrest
Officials sort through items seized in a raid on a suspected methamphetamine lab on Franklin Avenue in Canonsburg Thursday.
Police raid a house on Franklin Avenue in Canonsburg Thursday.
An alert retailer tipped off Canonsburg police after some of the potential ingredients needed to make methamphetamine were purchased at the borough business earlier this year.
Jesse Guy Lewandowski, 32, of 514 Franklin Ave., Apt. A, was taken into custody Thursday after Canonsburg police, Washington County District Attorney’s Task Force detectives and the state police clandestine laboratory team found him cooking suspected crystal meth on the back porch of his apartment.
Canonsburg police Chief Al Coghill said the investigation began in early April when the retailer told Officer Tom O’Rourke that a man, later identified as Lewandowski, was purchasing components that could be used to make meth.
“He was buying more than would be normally used nor would you usually buy the components together for anything else,” Coghill said. “At first, we didn’t have an identification on him but then he used a credit card.”
The department’s federal Drug Enforcement Agency officer notified the drug task force.
A state parole agent doing a compliance check of Lewandowski’s residence also noticed potential components of meth during a check several days ago and notified the task force detective investigating the case, said Rick Gluth, task force detective. The task force then consulted with the state police clandestine team.
Cpl. Dennis Ulery of the clandestine lab team checked a database that monitors purchases of psuedoephedrine, an ingredient in meth. State law limits the purchase of the substance to no more than nine grams over a 30-day period. Lewandowski purchased it 11 times and was blocked from purchasing it twice, according to database records.
Ulery said Lewandowski was using the single pot method of cooking meth. He said that no heat is used in the process but all the ingredients are put in one bottle, where everything cooks itself through a chemical reaction.
“It is still very dangerous,” Ulery said, adding the ingredients include lithium, drain cleaner and other household ingredients. “If the lithium comes into contact with water, the solvent would ignite and catch fire.”
Ulery said it appears Lewandowski was cooking meth on the porch but had the ingredients stored inside his apartment. He said the batch found Thursday appeared to be mid-stage in the cooking process. A chemist on scene checked the concoction before it was taken to the state police crime laboratory in Greensburg for further analysis.
Coghill said dealing with meth labs puts a burden on local resources for the cleanup. This is only his second encounter with a meth lab.
“We had the state police clandestine lab team in to dismantle it. The fire department was on standby along with the county’s hazardous materials team and an ambulance crew,” Coghill said. “Plus you had our department, task force detectives and state police.”
“This was truly a multi-agency investigation along with state parole,” he added. “It was a good cooperative effort between the agencies.”
Gluth said he expects charges including manufacturing of methamphetamine will be filed against Lewandowski next week. Lewandowski was placed in Washington County jail on a state parole violation.