News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 25, 2002

SUSPECTED METHAMPHETAMINE LAB SEIZED

On September 24, 2002 at 8:00 PM, the Westfield, New Jersey Police Department and the Mountainside, New Jersey Police Department arrested Candice Singer 42 and Damon Anthony Brown 39 of 360 Orenda Circle in Westfield.

Chief Bernard Tracy of the Westfield Police Department announced that upon execution of a search warrant officers discovered a suspected methamphetamine laboratory on the second floor of the residence. As a result, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Newark Division Clandestine Lab Team was called to the scene along with chemists from D.E.A.'s Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York. Agents and Chemists examined the suspected methamphetamine lab site to further the investigation and evaluate any potential chemical hazards. The Westfield Police seized glassware, chemicals and suspected methamphetamine at the Orenda Circle home.

As a result of the investigation, the defendants were charged with manufacturing suspected methamphetamine. The defendants Brown and Singer are being held on $150,000 bail in Union County Prison. The investigation will be prosecuted by the Union County New Jersey Prosecutor's Office.

During the past several months, D.E.A. Administrator Asa Hutchinson has traveled throughout the United States educating the American public of the effects and dangers of methamphetamine abuse. It has become a serious health and environmental issue in the Central and Western United States.

Anthony Cammarato, Special Agent in Charge of D.E.A.'s Newark Division commented that the West Coast methamphetamine problem has now come east and that Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement will have to remain vigilant and unified in their efforts.