JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Investigators in Jacksonville and Clay County have each made an arrest in connection with two separate meth busts.
Ryan Wilder was arrested Wednesday night in a meth bust in a neighborhood near Orange Park High School. Clay County deputies arrested him at the home on Fox Valley Drive.
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He is charged with possession of meth and possession of chemicals used in the manufacture of meth.
Deputies said they found in the house meth residue in smoking pipes and pseudoephedrine.
Wilder had just purchased some cold packs with ammonium nitrate from a drug store, and that was in his car, so it was seized, deputies said. They said they had followed him to a couple drug stores.
Deputies said there was also an 11-year-old boy in the home.
Deputies said the case remains active.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville police were investigating a meth lab at a home on the Westside on Thursday afternoon. A woman who lives at the home was arrested.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office bomb squad and Jacksonville Fire-Rescue hazardous materials team were called to the 8800 block of Normandy Boulevard at about 2 p.m.
One eastbound lane of Normandy at Hammond Boulevard was closed while the investigation was ongoing and the scene was decontaminated to make it safe for residents. Police said the meth lab was found in a backyard shed.
"We had 17 meth labs busted last year. This will be the fifth in 2012," JSO Assistant Chief Pat Ivey said.
The process of manufacturing meth can be explosive.
For that reason and the toll meth takes on its users, people who live nearby said they're thankful a potential lab was shut down, even if they didn't realize what was going on.
"I'm glad they busted it," neighbor Ronald Hesters said. "I mean, I'm glad of that. Maybe somebody else won't be smoking tonight."