A traffic stop in River Falls Wednesday revealed two inactive “one pot” meth cooks – making them the third set of meth-related arrests in eight days.

Drug Task Force commander Mark Odom said agents were called to the Big/Little station by River Falls Police Chief Greg Jackson, who’d pulled over the blue Chevrolet S-10 pickup for a traffic infraction.

Odom said when Jackson approached the vehicle, he could immediately smell the odor he associates with the manufacture of methamphetamine. The driver of the truck, 20-year-old Lex Allen Wheeler, was asked to step out of the vehicle, as was passenger Michael Ladon Raborn, 29, both of Andalusia.

“During a search, Chief Jackson located a black bag in the floor board of the truck that contained finished product meth, a plastic bottle containing about 300 grams of meth oil, an amount of marijuana, both meth and marijuana smoking devices, and hypodermic needles containing what appeared to be meth residue,” Odom said.

He said Jackson then searched the bed of the truck, where he found two inactive “one pot” meth cooks.

Jackson, who is also a DTF member, then contacted other DTF agents to assist him in processing the scene and removing the evidence.

“Luckily, the two cooks I found in the back bed were already ‘spent’ and were just waste from where a cook had been done previously,” Jackson said.

“For these guys to still have two in their possession leads me to believe they have been cooking often and producing a high amount of meth.”

Both Wheeler and Raborn were charged with manufacturing a controlled substance I, trafficking, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Each was booked into the Covington County Jail and held on an $820,000 bond.

DTF agents arrested one March 25 and three others at a lab on March 21 in Loango.

In both cases, agents arrived to find active cooks ongoing inside the two homes.

 

Editor’s note: The print edition of The Star-News incorrectly reported Wheeler’s last name.