Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- A methamphetamine lab in an apartment complex near Bodenburg Butte led to the arrests Monday of four people, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The four, Tina Foley, 43; Randell Bradshaw, 42; Donald Wiggins, 50; and Gene Martin Jr., 41, remained jailed Wednesday at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in lieu of $150,000 cash-only bail and a court-approved third-party custodian. Online court records show they've been arraigned on five felony counts of drug misconduct.

Martin faced additional felony weapons and theft charges, and Wiggins faced an added charge of tampering with physical evidence.

In addition, Foley was charged with keeping a building/vehicle to distribute the drug.

State, local and federal law enforcement officials received a tip Sunday night and converged at apartment No. 5, 405 North Old Glenn Highway, shortly after midnight Monday morning, according to troopers. They reported finding equipment and the primary ingredients used to cook methamphetamine and about four to five gallons of liquid waste from meth production.

They also found a small amount of finished meth and meth residue, according to troopers' spokeswoman Megan Peters.

"It was a small lab comparatively speaking -- the type where you sell it as quickly as you make it," Peters said.

Wiggins was caught trying to destroy evidence as the investigators entered the apartment, "... breaking things, washing things," she said. Wiggins told a trooper investigator he was stomping on a meth pipe.

Troopers stopped Martin and Bradshaw from leaving through a back door, according to an affidavit filed by trooper investigator Mike Ingram in Palmer court.

Investigators also found a stolen handgun, according to troopers.

Wiggins told Ingram that he purchased two boxes of cold remedy, which contains pseudoephedrine, a precursor used to make meth, at the Fred Meyer store in Palmer, according to Ingram's affidavit.

Foley told Ingram that Bradshaw, her boyfriend, and Wiggins arrived the previous evening and began to cook meth, according to Ingram. He wrote also that Foley told him Martin drove the four around Palmer to collect the supplies they needed. Foley said she purchased cold remedy at Fred Meyer, as well, Ingram stated in his affidavit.

Find Becky Stoppa online at adn.com/contact/bstoppa or call her in Wasilla at 907-352-6708.

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