5 arrested at Audubon Bridge illegal drugs checkpoint

ST. FRANCISVILLE — Officers with the Delta Narcotics Task Force arrested a Marrero man who was about to cross the John James Audubon Bridge with a “rolling meth lab” Thursday night, a West Feliciana Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.

During the highway drug interdiction operation, officers also arrested three other people on drug counts and a man wanted on other charges in East Feliciana Parish, sheriff’s Maj. Archer Lee said.

Chad M. Blythe, 43, 104 Sunrise Drive, Marrero, was booked at the West Feliciana Parish Jail with creation or operation of a clandestine lab for the production of methamphetamines, Lee said.

Blythe, who was stopped on La. 10, had all of the ingredients used in making crystal meth in a cooler in his vehicle and was carrying lithium batteries in his pocket, Lee said. Strips of lithium are used in the production of the illegal drug.

“He had not started cooking it, but he had everything he needed, including scales for weighing it,” Lee said.

The task force officers also booked Dimitris J. Rucker, 35, St. Francisville; Roberto D. Johnson, 20, 5898 Street A, Hardwood; and Thomas J. Haile, 21, 9928 Street F, Hardwood, at the parish jail with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, Lee said.

Agencies in the task force are the East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee sheriff’s offices, the Baker, Zachary and St. Francisville police departments and the Baton Rouge Constable’s Office.

Nathaniel Vessell, 28, 9100 Jones Vaughn Creek Road, was held as a fugitive from East Feliciana Parish, Lee said.

Comments

1) Comment by Entergy - 28/04/2013

Bored cops! Period.

2) Comment by BoiledCrabs - 10/12/2012

Ah, so that's how they are going to pay for that beautiful bridge out in the middle of nowhere.

3) Comment by Ivy - 08/12/2012

Great work task force!!!! Go on and argue about quantities if you want, but, if someone walks down any of your streets with a lock pick, ski mask, gloves, burlap sack swinging and whistling a tune, you'd be QUICK to assume they are there to do nothing but rob a home or two. Oh wait, you'd probably assume they were looking for folks who'd locked themselves out and needed a hand. (The ski mask would be to keep 'em warm - it is winter)

4) Comment by NewsReader - 08/12/2012

ebbette, only if you varied the quantities and that to me is the weakness in the DA's argument always. This is nothing new. They claim all the time in cases that the only thing you can make is meth. Juries often seem to go along with it too. Provided there's intent or proof of manufacture I don't have a problem with them using it as an enforcing argument, but I'd suspect many in this state have diesel, pvc pipe and fertilizer laying around. Are all of those people subject to arrest for bomb making? PS don't really like baking but sure... ;-)

5) Comment by ebbette - 08/12/2012

Couldn't you also make other things such as crepes or pancakes with those ingredients? The problem I see is one that has been long argued by many about prior laws which open the door to the slippery slope. You may strongly agree with something that becomes a law (example - not smoking in your car with a child under a certain age) but that doesn't mean it needs to be a law because that opens the door to laws you might feel just as strongly against. Simply having ingredients isn't enough, IMO. I have all the ingredients to make that cake but since I don't bake, they will never become a cake unless someone offers to come make it for me ;)

6) Comment by Duckyluve - 08/12/2012

Why is the baton rouge constables office involved in a drug task force? Shouldn't they be worried about clearing the tens of thousands of bench warrants in city court?

7) Comment by JeffryLaMonteSanford - 07/12/2012

Since when did illegal drug checkpoints become constitutoinal? To my way of thinking, as much force as is necessary to effectively resist that stop is justified. Of course, if you resist the illegal stop, you become a target of the officers involved. On your gravestone, they could say how much of a patriot the freedom fighter was. But probably he'd just go down as some dead guy the cops killed while resisting arrest. VOTE Jeff Hughes! Tomorrow. Dont forget! Get out and vote!

8) Comment by NewsReader - 07/12/2012

The argument usually made about the ingredients is that with the relative quantities of everything together there's nothing else you could make other than meth. I know it's a ***** argument but I do understand it. If someone asked you what you could make with 2 cups of flour, 4 eggs, cup of milk, 3/4 stick butter, salt and 2 tsp each vanilla and baking powder, you would pretty much know that no matter what you do with it, it is cake batter. The same argument applies with the ingredients for meth. But that should be left to argue after they've caught someone actually manufacturing it, not carrying all the legal ingredients imho. As for the forced checkpoint, I'm sure someone else will know better but I'm pretty sure the SCOTUS has already ruled in its legality. You can refuse a search, but then they'll just run a dog around the vehicle, it will bark or whatever and that gives them probable cause. Can't win.

9) Comment by TigerDragon - 07/12/2012

Maybe an attorney out there can explain to me how having the ingredients for an illegal drug but not the drug itself is illegal. You could in theory pull over a fertilizer truck that would contain all the ingredients for a car bomb. You could pull over a van of a handy man and he might have all the ingredients for meth in his van. It would seem to me you would need the illegal drug in your possession to be charged, not the ingredients. Also, while I am at it maybe someone can explain how a forced checkpoint is not an unlawful search and seizure. They stop you without probable cause, find what they can and then charge you. Again, I'm no lawyer but maybe one could explain how that is legal.