California Attorney General Brown Announces Mobile Meth Lab Bust In Casino Lot

May 14, 2008 -- OROVILLE -- California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that special agents in the California Department of Justice Bureau of Gambling Control and Butte County Inter-Agency Task Force have shut down a methamphetamine laboratory operating from motor homes parked at Feather Falls Casino.

“State investigators encountered a mobile methamphetamine laboratory operating right in the middle of the casino parking lot,” Attorney General Brown said. “The suspects disguised their mobile meth operation by hiding amongst legitimate visitors who were parking in the casino’s parking lot.”

State investigators yesterday arrested Michael Taylor, 30, and Erik Selvidge, 35, outside the Feather Falls Casino in Oroville following an investigation into suspected methamphetamine laboratories. The Bureau of Gambling Control began tracking the suspects after receiving reports that methamphetamine was being produced in two motor homes located in the parking lot of the Feather Falls Casino.

Yesterday, special agents served search warrants on the vehicles, a 1990 Toyota motor home and a 1978 Winnebago house car, and discovered evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing including 5 grams of methamphetamine, and 1 pound of ephedrine.

The laboratory was equipped to manufacture approximately one-half ounce of methamphetamine, with a street value of $1,400, during each production session.

“This was a mobile methamphetamine manufacturing operation with the capability to cook up hundreds of poisonous doses,” said Bureau of Gambling Control Special Agent Marty Horan.

Both suspects were arrested and booked into the Butte County Jail for violating Health and Safety Code sections prohibiting manufacture of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine for sale and possession of chemicals with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine. Bail for both suspects was set at $140,000.

Other agencies involved in the investigation and take down include Butte Inter-Agency Narcotic Task Force and the Butte County Sheriff’s Department. The California Department of Justice is conducting an ongoing investigation into suspected methamphetamine operations in Butte County.

Source: California Attorney General

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