The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has released new information to KnightNews.com concerning just how dangerous the meth lab they say was operated by a UCF chemistry major really was.
SEE SLIDESHOW PICTURES OF METH LAB NEAR UCF
READ A PORTION OF THE ARREST REPORT EXPLAINING HOW IT WENT DOWN
“OCSO Meth Lab deputies dawned protective gear and breathing apparatus in this toxic environment,” Lt. Paul Hopkins told KnightNews.com.
UCF chemistry major William Cecil, who turns 22 Friday, was the one to blame, according to the sheriff’s office. In addition to 13 grams of meth deputies found in Cecil’s apartment, he also had a stash of 31 grams of vicodin, 28 grams of pot, and 6 grams of cocaine, Hopkins said.
According an arrest report, Tiffany S. Irizarry, a manager at the Campus Crossing apartments, located a stone’s throw from UCF, called deputies after she got a tip from a resident there were suspicious items inside apartment 1170 at 12024 Royal Wulff Lane.
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Irizarry went inside the apartment and found frozen bottles, paint thinners and a plastic bottle with a handwritten chemical placard and “Methanol” written on side, according to the report.
Irizarry told deputies she and another manager conducted some research about the chemicals, and “realized they could be consistent with the ingredients needed to “cook crystal
methamphetamine” and called the sheriff’s non-emergency line, the report stated.
When deputies arrived a hazmat situation was declared due to a “toxic environment” and 50 residents were ordered out of their homes at about 5:45 p.m.
Sometime after 7 p.m., KnightNews.com crews were on the scene of the Campus Crossing club house where a group of displaced residents gathered with no idea there was a meth lab in their complex.
KnightNews.com asked a female employee of the complex what was going on. At that point, a resident screamed, “It’s a gas leak!”
The employee appeared to nod in confirmation, didn’t deny it was a gas leak, and then told residents she thought it would be about be about an hour until everything cleared up and said she’d try to bring some bottled water out by the pool until things calmed down.
Unfortunately for residents, the entire scene didn’t clear until 2:30 a.m., several hours later, according to the report.
Eventually, most tenants were put in other apartments or hotel rooms for the night by the management, according to OCSO.
Although this all played out in OCSO’s jurisdiction, UCF police were called to the scene due to the crime scene’s proximity to UCF and because many of the suspects were UCF students.
When all was said and done, only one UCF student, Cecil, faced drug charges, and his roommates were deemed not to be responsible.
A 25-year-old friend of Cecil’s, Steven Brian Bardill, was however arrested when deputies found about 50 pills of oxycodone on him, according to his arrest report.
READ THE OCSO REPORT ABOUT THE CAMPUS CROSSING METH LAB ON NEXT PAGE:
