Two people are in custody and a methamphetamine lab lodged in a self-storage facility unit has been dismantled following an investigation into sales of illegal drugs in the area, acting Union County Prosecutor Grace H. Park announced Thursday.
Ashley Weathers, 32, and Christian Boyle, 40, both residents of Freehold Township (Monmouth County), were both charged with first-degree maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility, second-degree possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and a related third-degree drug charge.
An investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office’s Guns, Gangs, Drugs, and Violent Crimes Task Force yielded information that Weathers and Boyle had been distributing methamphetamine in Union County.
The two were pulled over on Routes 1&9 in Rahway Wednesday evening and approximately 15 grams of methamphetamine were seized from the vehicle, after which they were arrested and lodged in Union County Jail.
A search warrant subsequently executed at Boyle’s Freehold Borough storage unit by members of the Task Force, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Freehold Borough Police Department revealed a fully functional methamphetamine lab, complete with large amounts of pseudoephedrine, chemicals commonly mixed with that drug to produce methamphetamine, and the various pieces of equipment needed to mix them.
The apparatus was dismantled safely by members of the New Jersey State Police Hazardous Materials Response Unit and the Monmouth County Hazmat Unit, and evidence was seized and processed by the Union County Sheriff’s Office’s Identification Unit.
Weathers and Boyle bail was set at $250,000 each.
Convictions on first-degree criminal charges are commonly punishable by 10 to 20 years in state prison, while second-degree crimes are punishable by 5 to 10 years.