One Plant City man is facing charges after Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigators discovered a narcotics lab in a home less than one mile from Walden Lake Elementary School.
Ronnie Dale Porter, 36, was charged with possession of, methylamine, a precursor chemical.
A simple eviction turned into a daylong investigation Sept. 17, when Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office investigators discovered what appeared to be bomb-making materials inside the home, 4911 Pandora Place.
However, after an outside lab tested a sample of a chemical found in a refrigerator, investigators concluded the chemicals and other devices were part of a clandestine narcotics lab.
The home’s owner, Kelly Doyle, said she had rented the home for 13 years to Porter, her third cousin, and his family, which includes a 4-year-old and a 12-year-old, Doyle said.
Doyle said Porter had fallen behind on payments in the past, and she had tried to help. However, this year, she began eviction proceedings.
Doyle and her brother, Wes, arrived at the home at 9 a.m. Sept. 17, to begin the eviction. As they searched the home, they discovered an 8-foot python, a tarantula and a bearded dragon. The Doyles called animal services to remove the animals.
However, the animal services official discovered chemicals and pressure cookers in one of the rooms and immediately evacuated the home. According to Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Col. Jim Previtera, who commands of the Department of Operational Support, the pressure cookers were the same models used in the Boston Marathon bombing.
“He [Porter] tried to tell me it was his daughter’s science project,” Kelly Doyle said. “But she’s not even going to school.”
Officials from Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Haz-Mat and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms arrived to the home, evacuated five surrounding homes and set up road blocks on Charleston Avenue off Turkey Creek Road. For most of the day, they collected samples of chemicals for testing, as well as other evidence, Previtera said.
One of the chemicals tested as methylamine hydrochloride, which is used to manufacture MDMA, or Ecstasy.
Previtera said the size and type of narcotics lab was alarming.
“A lab like that is not something that is common in this area,” he said.
Porter currently is in the Hillsborough County Jail.
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.