PINK HILL — Law enforcement converged on a Pink Hill residence early Thursday evening and shut down a working methamphetamine operation, the conclusion of a four-month investigation.
Ralph Edward “Eddie” Stroud, 47 — also known as “Fast Eddie” — was taken into custody at the scene.
Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office deputies, assisted by the Duplin County Sheriff’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation, raided a converted barn and residence on the property, along with several other structures on the property.
“We have a primary building, which is this one right here,” Lenoir County Sheriff Chris Hill said Friday, gesturing toward the barn, “and we had products in this house as a result of that operation.”
Hill said the barn was a toxic chemical problem from the outset.
“They said last night when they went into that building, it was absolutely, terribly noxious,” Hill said. “If one of our people had happened to just be going into that building, and not know what was going on, the situation could have been a lot worse for our folks. Because, they said that building right there was full of gas, full of fumes from that operation.”
By the time law enforcement was finished with the structure, windows were busted out and doorways left open to allow the chemical gasses to dissipate.
In May 2012, a Jones County Sheriff’s Office deputy cleaning the scene of a meth lab ended up in the hospital after inadvertently inhaling the fumes from a strong acid when the top of a bottle popped off.
Stroud has been charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possession with the intent to sell and deliver meth, possession and distributing meth precursors, maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was placed in the Lenoir County Detention Center on a $200,000 bond.
An LCSO release said Stroud has a history of meth convictions and spent time in federal prison. His most recent stint in state prison was March 2004-March 2006 on a conviction for trafficking in methamphetamine.
Late Friday afternoon, the LCSO announced Lisa Futrell, who also resided at the location of the incident, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and given a $5,000 bond.
North Carolina experienced a major meth lab spike in 2005, when law enforcement shut down 328 operations. State laws went into effect the next year to handle the problem, and cases dwindled until picking back up in recent years.
There were 344 reported meth labs in 2011 and 460 in 2012. Lenoir County recorded five meth labs for both years.
From his perspective in the City of Kinston, Kinston Department of Public Safety spokesman Woody Spencer said whenever law enforcement cracks down on a meth ingredient, cookers change recipes and methods to adapt.
“Things are changing so quickly,” Spencer said. “They’re using different chemicals. They used to use a lot of Sudafed, and then that got hard to get, so now they’re using other things. They used to use matches — they’d get the chemicals off the match heads, and now they’ve moved on to something else.
He continued, “The biggest thing I could say that if you have any suspicions, if you smell anything ammonia-wise or any chemical smell, call 911 and have somebody check it out.”
More arrests are expected in the Pink Hill case as investigators track down suspects.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 and Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.