Police are still searching for the suspects behind a substantial drug lab discovered by accident next door to an elementary school.
Richmond RCMP got the call to investigate Tuesday night after firefighters, dealing with a house fire at 9440 Alberta Road — which skirts Anderson elementary, found a truckload of suspicious materials.
Inside the single-family home in Richmond’s Brighouse district, the RCMP’s clandestine lab team and the local detachment’s drug unit spent much of Wednesday pulling apart what appears to be a sophisticated meth lab.
Cpl. Stephanie Ashton, of Richmond RCMP, said a large amount of “completed meth amphetamine” was found among the “dangerous materials” in the home.
Police also found large gallons of different chemicals in a number of barrels.
Although not able to speak on how big the drug operation was, Ashton said the investigation went beyond the garage and into other areas of the home, including a shed in the backyard and presented obvious dangers to the surrounding neighbourhood, including the school and daycare.
No one was inside the home when the fire broke out on Tuesday evening and the school, which is separated from the home by a giant hedge, was not in session.
