ARLINGTON – Somebody turned the cellar of the Arlington Community Food Bank’s Helping Hands thrift store into a hide-out for methamphetamine supplies.
Arlington police made that surprising discovery while responding to a burglary call at the store’s unused cellar in the 100 block of Cox Street.
Inside, police found jars with chemicals typically associated with the manufacturing of meth, a highly addictive drug that can be made cheaply with household items such as solvents and acids.
Cooking such ingredients to make meth can make a building toxic to humans, often requiring expensive cleanup. Police do not yet know if the meth ingredients were being cooked in the cellar or simply stored there.
The city of Arlington, which owns the building, is awaiting lab results next week before the of the cleanup can be determined. State law requires the property owner to pay for cleaning up meth labs, regardless of who is at fault.
Thrift store workers alerted police after noticing the cellar’s padlock had been forcibly removed. The cellar has only outside doors and cannot be accessed from inside the store.
Officers also found evidence that at least one person had been living in the cellar.
The city’s police department contacted the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force and the Snohomish Health District. The health district took chemical samples from both the cellar and upstairs in the thrift store, said Jonelle Fenton-Wallace, an environmental health specialist for the district.
If meth turns up, it would indicate the chemicals were cooked in the cellar and that a more extensive cleanup of the entire building would be justified, Fenton-Wallace said. Meth could show up because of spills or from cooking fumes, she said.
Otherwise, a simpler cleanup concentrating on the cellar might be all that’s needed, she added.
Sgt. John Flood of the drug task force said some meth operations have started to divide the manufacturing process, cooking part of the drug in one spot and finishing it elsewhere to make it harder to detect.
But both Flood and Lt. Terry Quintrall of the Arlington Police Department said they will have to await the lab results before drawing any conclusions. No suspects have been identified.
The meth chemicals were found Monday just two blocks away from low-income apartments on Burke Avenue where a meth lab exploded Dec. 21. Flood said fingerprints at both sites will be examined to see if the suspect at the Burke Avenue lab had anything to do with the thrift store chemicals.
“I don’t think at this point we’re prepared to say they’re linked,” Quintrall said.
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