Sheriff's office finds meth lab in county by interrupting an ongoing exchange

DEEP RUN — En route to Goldsboro, authorities intercepted a methamphetamine exchange at a Kinston gas station and, upon further investigation, discovered three residents starting preparations for cooking the felonious drug.

Sunday evening, Sgt. Clay Keel of the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office stopped a vehicle suspected of trafficking marijuana between Lenoir and Wayne counties at the Kangaroo Express on U.S. 258 North across from Bethel Christian Academy.

Keel flagged down the car in response to an anonymous tip made to the agency that two males and a female were transporting methamphetamines.

The occupants of the vehicle, Xavier “Scott” Salgado, Michel Strickland, and Crystal Outlaw Bell, were interviewed and the vehicle and home of Bell were searched.

Salgado, 38 of 2187 Leslie R. Stroud Road, and Strickland, 23 of 2755 Eric Sparrow Road, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to manufacture and manufacture methamphetamine. Both are being held in the Lenoir County Jail under a $100,000 bond.

“Our unit has been investigating these two fellows for two to three months based on complaints they were manufacturing meth,” said Keel, a narcotics detective with the sheriff’s office.

Bell, who was spotted walking to the gas station’s bathroom throwing multiple Sudafed tablets from beneath her clothing into a trash can, has not been charged.

Searches of the vehicle and the mobile home at 2423 Burncoat Road in Deep Run, generated “essential ingredients” used for making the Schedule II stimulant, said Keel.

“They were definitely manufacturing methamphetamine,” he said. “They were planning on cooking last night before I made the investigative stop.”

A search warrant to enter and decontaminate the mobile home, a quarter-mile from the Duplin County line, was secured by sheriff’s deputies and the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation Monday afternoon after coffee filters and lithium batteries were found in the car.

Investigators found in the bathroom Pseudoephedrine, rock salt, pill crushers, Coleman camping fuel, propane cylinder tanks, fertilizer, plastic jars and tubing, and drain cleaner — an accelerant used to separate the drug’s key component, Sufedrin.

“I wouldn’t say it is the largest lab that we have had, but it is a decent size lab,” Keel said. “It was probably capable of manufacturing 15 to 20 grams of meth per cook.”

Bell, onsite during the search of her home, declined to comment.

“You can go on,” she said when approached by The Free Press.

The lone neighbors and Bell’s relatives at 2491 Burncoat Road, a home owned by Jimmie D. Outlaw 100 yards away, also declined to comment on the case saying, “I am family — I don’t have a reaction.”

Neighbors of the residence a half-mile away, who wished not to be identified, were unaware of the operation and shocked.

The sheriff’s office said the investigating remains open and more charges are pending.

“We will be attending charges on (Bell) Tuesday with manufacturing meth and conspiring to manufacture meth,” Keel said.

Wesley Brown can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wbrown@freedomenc.com.