ROCKINGHAM ― A weekend traffic stop led investigators to the site of a meth lab in the city limits.
Two officers with the Rockingham Police Department stopped a pickup truck just before 4 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of First Baptist Church on Randolph Street because of a female passenger having active warrants, according to an incident report.
During a search of the truck, police say they found a glass pipe, straw and torch lighter, less than a half-ounce of marijuana and at least 1.5 grams of a crystal substance, suspected to be methamphetamine.
Police say further investigation led them to discover a meth lab at a residence on Robinson Street.
There, investigators reportedly found: a quart of acetone; a gallon of muriatic acid; a gallon of camp fuel; two intact AA batteries and numerous AA and AAA batteries that had been cut open and emptied; an empty box and blister packs of pseudoephedrine; a torn-open instant cold pack; six plastic bottles with blackened, brittle paper towels; four plastic bottles with a white residue and corroded bottoms; one plastic bottle with white paper towels; several feet of plastic tubing; a wrapper from a bottle of drain opener; a sales receipt from a pharmacy; two intact glass smoking devices and one broken; a tin foil “boat;” a Blue Hawk glove; a duffle bag and “Cars” backpack; and a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson long revolver and 13 bullets.
Tiffany Nicole Strickland, 35, of Old Cheraw Highway, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine simple possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
Online court records show Strickland is also charged with three counts of possession of pseudoephedrine with a prior meth conviction.
Another suspect was named in the report for manufacturing, but there is no record of him yet being charged.
Earlier in the day, the same officers stopped 57-year-old Shawn Brownson Peek on Hood Street for driving a vehicle “not showing displaying a registration number plate,” according to another report.
The officers searched the vehicle and reportedly found 0.2 grams of suspected methamphetamine, two glass pipes and a torch lighter.
Peek, of Robinson Street, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without displaying a registration plate. He was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
Strickland and Peek are scheduled to appear in court Sept. 5.
Peek spent seven months behind bars when he was convicted in 2014 of possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance and his probation was revoked on two prior DWI convictions, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.
He was also convicted of a drug law violation in 1993 and of assault on a female and simple assault in 1995.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
