Methamphetamine Lab Discovered In Louisiana Casino

A couple have landed themselves behind bars after setting up an illegal methamphetamine drugs lab inside one of the hotel rooms of a Louisiana casino.
Apparently Quentin Lucas, 31, and Jennifer Walter, 34, were the occupants of a room at Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino in Shreveport when a smoke alarm going off alerted authorities to the presence of the drugs laboratory.
The discovery was made at around 9:30 p.m on Thursday when an off-duty policy officer working security at the hotel responded to a smoke alarm going off in a room on the 20th floor of the hotel casino.
After speaking to the occupants of the guest room, the officer noticed an inordinate amount of smoke coming from inside the room, which turned out to be a methamphetamine lab on closer investigation.
The rooms adjoining the lab were then evacuated as methamphetamine labs sometimes have the nasty habit of blowing up. Over the next two hours the Caddo-Shreveport Narcotics Unit then dismantled the operation and removed the flammable chemicals used in the production of the drug, with the hotel guests able to return to their rooms at 12:30am Friday morning.
In the meantime the couple were taken to Shreveport City Jail and charged with the ‘Creation or operation of a clandestine laboratory for the unlawful manufacture of a controlled dangerous substance.’
Unfortunately, methamphetamine drug labs seem to be a growing problem in the USA and Thursday’s discovery was the fourth such made in Caddo Parish since Tuesday.
The drug is generally cheaper than Crack, and more addictive than heroin with users then needing higher doses more frequently to get high. When manufacturers of the drug set up their operations in small, illegal laboratories, they often endangers any nearby residents, with the prospect of fires and explosions a real possibility.