ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Two men were arrested late Wednesday afternoon in St. Johns County on methamphetamine charges.
Deputies responded to a report of a possible active mobile meth lab inside a vehicle in the area of Deer Run and Thompson Bailey roads. A description of the vehicle was given to deputies, who spotted it moving on Thompson Bailey Road.
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Deputies said that as they began to follow the vehicle, the driver quickly turned down a dirt driveway, where a deputy conducted a traffic stop for an inoperable brake light.
The owner of the vehicle, who was not the driver, consented to a search of the vehicle, a 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer, deputies said. They said they found a Mason jar with suspicious liquid in the backseat that was believed to be part of an active meth lab.
Detectives with the Sheriff's Office Meth Response Team responded and confirmed the active meth lab. The four occupants of the vehicle had to be decontaminated by Hazmat personnel, deputies said.
Two of them, the driver, identified as 35-year-old Frank Higginbotham, of Cross City, and a passenger, 31-year-old Kristopher Robinson, of St. Augustine were each charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell, production of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. They were booked into the St. Johns County Jail.
Higginbotham was being held with bail set at $402,000, and Robinson was being held without bail.
The Sheriff's Office said its Meth Response Team was dispatched to another meth lab investigation just before 8 a.m. Thursday on Poinsettia Road in St. Augustine.
St. Johns County Fire Rescue said there were no injuries or anyone taken to a hospital.
There were some precautionary evacuations in the immediate area.