Meth Lab Found in Million-Dollar Lake-Front Home, Cops Say
Police found guns, chemicals and equipment to make meth lab.
April 19, 2014 — -- Police in Ohio say they have found materials to create a meth lab at a million-dollar lakefront home near Cleveland.
According to the Loraine County Sheriff's department, they found materials and equipment used to produce methamphetamine at Madhu Dutta's home located in Sheffield Lake, Ohio.
Members of the Loraine County Drug Task Force arrested Madhu Dutta, 52, at the scene. They said they also found three handguns and 11 shotguns at the home. The guns were being checked by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to see if they are legal, police said.
Dutta allegedly had compiled equipment and materials to make a more complex meth lab called a thionyl/chloride method lab, the first known lab of its kind in the state, according to police.
Dennis Cavanaugh, chief deputy of the Loraine County Sheriff's Office Drug Task Force, said that they initially had reports about Dutta in August 2013. After launching an investigation, investigators issued a search warrant on Wednesday to search the premises. During the search they found chemicals and equipment that would be used to produce meth, he said.
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Cavanaugh said Dutta's home was on lakefront property in an affluent area and according to property records Dutta bought his home for $1,125,000 last year.
Neighbors speaking to ABC News affiliate WEWS-TV in northeast Ohio said they were shocked by the arrest.
"It's very unexpected," one unidentified neighbor told WEWS-TV. "You don't expect that at all."
"Around the lake the properties are expensive," Cavanaugh said. "I don't care where you are in this county or the state, you never know when anything like this is going to happen."
Dutta is facing two counts of illegal processing and assembling chemicals and one count of permitting drug abuse. He is due in court on April 24 and his bond was set at $100,000.
Dutta issued a plea of not guilty during an arraignment hearing, according to court records.
It is not clear whether he has obtained a lawyer.
