News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2002

METH LAB FOUND IN EAST RUTHERFORD

In the early morning hours of Wednesday September 26, 2002, East Rutherford, New Jersey Fire and Police Department responded to smoke at an apartment located at 80 Rosewood Terrace in East Rutherford. Found at the location was Christopher Bond. Upon entering the premises, East Rutherford Police found what they believed to be a clandestine laboratory in operation. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Bomb Squad, Haz-Mat Team and Newark D.E.A.'s Clandestine Laboratory Team were called to the apartment complex. Upon examination of the site by agents and chemists from D.E.A.'s Northeast Regional Laboratory it was confirmed that the site was producing suspected methamphetamine. Seized at the scene was laboratory equipment, glassware, chemicals and suspected controlled substances.

Bond was placed under arrest at the scene. He was charged by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli with arson, maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility (suspected methamphetamine) and possession with intent to distribute LSD near a school and park.

The Honorable Judge Savino in Bergen County, New Jersey held the defendant on $250,000 cash bail. The Bergen County Prosecutors Office will prosecute Bond.

The seizure represents the second suspected methamphetamine lab seizure in New Jersey during the past two days. It underscores the growing threat of methamphetamine throughout the United States. D.E.A. Administrator Hutchinson touring the United States this past year has brought this growing problem to the attention of the American Public.

Anthony Cammarato, Special Agent in Charge of D.E.A. Newark advises that the public must recognize methamphetamine as not only a drug abuse problem for the people of New Jersey but also the toxic chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine poses a serious environmental issue.