Traffic stops: 11 key tips and tactics

Officer needs assistance: Are you ready to really help?

Thanks to 'the guys' who taught this female cop to be an FTO

Is 'pension spiking' milking taxpayers or smart personal finances?

2 traffic stops, 2 very different outcomes

Active shooters in schools: A template for police trainers

“No one picks the time when bad s--- happens": Great quotes from ILEETA 2013

A poem for Police Week: Messages from a fallen officer

Police Week 2013: Your agency needs an LODD policy

Police Limit Comic for May 12, 2013

Momma says: 8 police lessons for Mother's Day

PTSD and police: Hiring and retaining war veterans in our ranks

March 14, 2008

EmailPrintCommentRSS

Tenn. SWAT raids meth lab, nets 6 arrests

By Don Jacobs
The Knoxville News Sentinel

VONORE, Tenn. — A Monroe County SWAT team that raided a residence was greeted with flames as one occupant of the home allegedly threw drug ingredients down a drain, igniting a fire in the kitchen sink.

No one was injured in the Thursday night raid that resulted in the arrests of six people, according to Monroe County Sheriff's Office Lt. Jennifer Bledsoe.

The Special Weapons and Tactical Team for the Sheriff's Office entered the trailer late Thursday night at 645 White Plains Road armed with a search warrant. As officers entered, resident Dwight Gaylor Bright, 44, allegedly tried to destroy evidence by pouring methamphetamine ingredients down the kitchen sink, Bledsoe said.

The toxic chemicals ignited in the sink, setting the kitchen on fire. Sheriff's Office Capt. Michael Bledsoe, who also is a certified firefighter, extinguished the flames before the arrival of the Citico and Vonore fire departments.

Once hazardous materials teams determined the residence was safe for law enforcement officers, a search of the trailer revealed "multiple components for the manufacture of methamphetamine," Jennifer Bledsoe said. The Bledsoes are husband and wife.

One man fled from the trailer when the raid commenced, Jennifer Bledsoe said, but four men and two women were taken into custody.

Those arrested are Bright, charged with manufacturing meth, destruction of evidence and reckless endangerment, and Johnnie Rhonda Duckett, 35, of Tellico Plains, charged with violation of probation and manufacturing meth. Facing charges of manufacturing meth are Heather Sue Foxx, 23, of Pigeon Forge; Marcus Danielle Giles, 27, of Madisonville; Marcus Dewayne Cline, 41, of Vonore; and Brently Craig Harrill, 29, of Madisonville.

Jennifer Bledsoe said this morning she was unsure if an arrest warrant has been issued for the man who fled from the trailer as the raid began.