By Gary Lloyd
JEFFERSON COUNTY — Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday dispatched to a residence in northeastern Jefferson County to check the welfare of two children ended up making another discovery.
Deputies responding to a mobile home in the 4600 block of Elfreth Johnson Road in unincorporated Jefferson County near Pinson found an active methamphetamine lab just after 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Randy Christian said a caller expressed concern that there was drug activity at the mobile home and he was worried about the 5- and 8-year-old children who lived there.
Christian said there was a small travel trailer on the mobile home’s lot. Deputies knocked and a 29-year-old woman answered but said she was alone. When deputies heard noises coming from the travel trailer, she told them that her adult stepson, 20-year-old Jeremiah Small, was inside the trailer. She knocked on the door and Small came out. Both granted deputies permission to search the mobile home and the travel trailer, Christian said.
Once inside the travel trailer, deputies located an active methamphetamine lab, Christian said. They exited the trailer and called narcotics investigators. Drug paraphernalia was found inside the mobile home.
The children were located in the mobile home but were unharmed, Christian said. The Department of Human Resources was called to the scene to assist and a safety plan was enacted, and the children were removed from the home for their safety and placed with relatives.
Small was arrested and charged with unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance. He was in Jefferson County Jail with bond set at $150,000. Chemical endangerment of a child charges are being pursued against the 29-year-old woman, who is the mother of the two children.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.