Three nabbed on drug charges, but meth lab still out there rolling

Narcotics cops were combing city streets yesterday searching for the remnants of a portable methamphetamine lab after officers discovered a cache of the drug inside a South Philadelphia garage.

Investigators found 141.7 grams of meth, worth $44,170, along with $3,211 cash in a garage at 25th and McKean streets Monday night. Two men and a woman were arrested.

Chemistry books and lab equipment also were seen, but the actual chemicals and tools to make the deadly narcotic were missing police said.

"They cooked the drug there," said Capt. Tony Newsome, of Narcotics Field Unit 1. "But everything was moved out to a location that we don't know about."

Cops said they arrested three people connected to the garage; Newsome declined to release the names of the suspects as the investigation continues.

Movable meth labs are nothing new, Newsome said.

"It is a current trend," he said. "They could be found anywhere, inside a van, a car, or a house."

Also, because the meth was cooked up in a garage surrounded by other commercial businesses, Newsome said, the drug's toxic fumes were not a threat to homes. *