By Margaret Anderson
margaret@newsroom.byu.edu
Police busted a drug lab and arrested their key suspect May 11, putting an end to a month long investigation in Midvale.
At 3 a.m. the Utah County Major Crime Task Force in conjunction with the Midvale Police Department, with a search warrant in hand, discovered a methamphetamine lab in a duplex at 7594 S. 900 East.
Casey Beckstead, 27, was arrested and will face federal charges for the lab.
Beckstead was a known felon and had nine outstanding warrants, said Lt. Stan Eggen. His bail was set at $152,000.
Methamphetamine, also known as 'meth' or 'speed,' is an addictive, illegal drug, said Lt. Doug Edwards of the Orem Police Department.
Police found two pounds of finished product valued at $40,000 at the lab, Eggen said. Eggen said that materials to make another 10 pounds were also uncovered.
The police saw that potentially dangerous byproducts of the drug were being vented through the toilet in order to hide the odor.
Authorities found more byproducts hidden in the attic. The attic is shared by the other half of the duplex, the home of a family of three.
The police asked the family to evacuate for a few days for safety reasons, Eggen said.
Officers also found evidence of stolen identities, checks from local businesses, counterfeit currency and equipment for countering U.S. currency, Eggen said.
This was the end to a long investigation, Eggen said. The police were able to uncover where the lab was located the old fashioned way, he said.
'We followed people there.'
Three people involved in the lab had been arrested previous to Beckstead's arrest.
This was not the first meth lab to be discovered in Utah County, Edwards said. Many cold labs (meth labs no longer in use) have been discovered during this past year, he said.
Edwards said that drugs and especially methamphetamine continue to be a growing problem in the Utah County.