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Police Make Two Arrests In Suspected Meth Lab Bust

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HARNETT COUNTY, N.C. — Two people are in custody after being accused of running a methamphetamine lab in Harnett County.

Investigators said they heard a tip about a meth lab being run out of a mobile home at Claude White Road in Cameron. The home had been under surveillance for two months.

When authorities arrived at the home Wednesday, they said they caught 44-year-old Carl Wayne Waddell and 34-year-old Jessica Pilson Venrick cooking the chemicals used to manufacture meth at the scene.

"The street value of this is about $2,000 an ounce of weight. They could make it for about $95. [It's] pretty good money," Harnett County Sheriff Larry Rollins said.

Neighbor Doug Forbes said he stopped by to see Waddell last week. He even went into a storage room on the property and did not notice anything suspicious. He thought Waddell was operating a garage out of his back yard.

"He's always working on cars. He was banging well into 7 or 8 at night. He seemed like a hard-working fellow," he said.

Authorities said meth labs are creeping into the eastern part of the state at an alarming rate. Drug agents busted three meth labs in Harnett County last year.

Local drug agents said the western part of the state is even more of a hotbed for meth labs. Last year, they uncovered more than 200 hidden drug operations.

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