Four arrested and one dead in connection to Old Town meth lab

Fri, 04/28/2017 - 8:15am

    Maine Drug Enforcement Agency said April 28 that four people were arrested Thursday and charged in connection with a meth lab discovered inside an Old Town apartment house. The body of a fifth person being sought was located yesterday in a house a short distance away. The lab was inside an apartment at 178 Brunswick Street discovered April 25 after Old Town firefighters had been called for an explosion and small fire in the apartment, according to a news release from the Maine Dept. of Public Safety.

    Damage was confined to the apartment.  Working with the State Fire Marshal's Office and Old Town Police, drug agents determined a meth lab had been operational inside the apartment and Fire Marshal's say the fire was a result of that lab.

    The couple who rented the apartment and two others were charged with operating a meth lab, police said.

    Those arrested were Jason Smith, 38, and Carrie Ballanger, 31, both tenants in the apartment, and Don Dube, 47, of Glenburn and Sue Smith, 36, a transient. The four were taken to the Penobscot County Jail and all were charged with aggravated unlawful operation of a meth lab.

    The aggravated charge was because of the heightened danger of  the lab being located inside an apartment house.

    A fifth person was also being sought in connection with the lab and Thursday afternoon his body was found in a house at 465 Brunswick St in Old Town.

    Fire Marshals suspect the man was seriously burned in the fire and fled the scene, police said.

    The body was transported overnight to the State Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy. His name is being withheld as relatives are being notified.