Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Wednesday

December 5, 2012

Police: Meth made in motel room

Paraphernalia to be tested for traces of methamphetamine

BY MICHAEL WALTON mwalton@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Police suspect customers at a local motel made meth in their room.

The Traverse Narcotics Team executed a search warrant for a room at the Shadowland Motel on Munson Avenue at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Daniel King said. They seized drug paraphernalia and marijuana from inside the motel space.

Police also collected component chemicals and equipment used in the production of methamphetamine, but King said these were not found in the room. He would not say where officers located the chemicals and equipment.

King said the paraphernalia will be tested for traces of methamphetamine.

Traverse City police officers, Grand Traverse sheriff's deputies, Traverse City firefighters and members of the State Police 7th District Meth Team assisted the Traverse Narcotics Team.

Police arrested one woman on an unrelated misdemeanor warrant. Two additional suspects were not at the motel.

An investigation into the lab and the two suspects is ongoing, King said.

Deputies and officers remained in the motel's parking lot and outside a second-floor room at about 10 a.m.

Several items often used to make methamphetamine, including drain cleaner, nasal decongestants and lithium strips from batteries, laid across a tarp on the motel's lawn.

Ron Robinson director of hotel operations at Summerside Properties, a company that manages Shadowland Motel and several other Traverse City hotels, said an individual had rented the room police searched for a little over a month.

No guests or hotel staff reported anything suspicious going on in the room during that time.

"I'm glad police were on top of it," Robinson said.

The Traverse Narcotics Team finds more suspected meth labs in Osceola, Wexford and Antrim counties than in Grand Traverse County, King said. Three suspected labs were found in Wexford alone last week.

"We don't have a large number of suspected labs seized in Grand Traverse County, but that doesn't mean they aren't there," he said.

Anyone with information related to other possible meth labs can contact the Traverse Narcotics Team at: 231-922-0993 or the Silent Observer Tip Line 231-947-TIPS.

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