Police dismantle ‘sophisticated’ meth lab near Brampton elementary school

TORONTO — Police and emergency crews are dismantling a large, “sophisticated” methamphetamine lab found a residential Brampton neighbourhood, about 30 metres from a public elementary school.

Police discovered the drug lab at 20 Georgian Rd. Friday afternoon and have been on scene investigating for several hours. They haven’t laid any charges and wouldn’t say anything about potential suspects.

RCMP Sgt. Brent Hill said the synthetic drug operations team is working with chemists from Health Canada and the hazardous materials response team. The Brampton Fire Department and Peel Regional Paramedic Services are standing by for safety purposes.

He said judging from the volume of chemicals discovered at the scene, the meth lab was a “large, sophisticated” operation capable of producing kilograms of methamphetamine.

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“You’ve got a lot of new houses, a lot of young families walking up and down the sidewalks and not within about 100 feet of here you’ve got a very large public elementary school,” Hill said.

“Our main concern when you get to these methamphetamine labs is you have cooks, people that cook illicit drugs and they don’t have university degrees, they don’t have appreciate the dangers and certainly they want to keep their location secret from police attention but when things go wrong they can become very tragic very quick.”

Hill said investigators immediately realized there was illegal activity taking place at the home, but could not comment on how they were alerted to the lab.

“What’s disturbing is that it’s not unusual, it’s par for the course,” to have a meth lab in an otherwise unobtrusive residential neighbourhood, he said.

“We come across illicit drug labs in residential neighbourhoods and commercial complexes, they’re looking to blend in, they’re looking for these secret locations.”

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Hill said that after securing the safety of the home, investigators are collecting evidence and will determine whether to lay charges later.

“All we can do is appeal to the public, if you see suspicious activity, something not right on your street, call the police and share that information and it could lead to a criminal investigation such as this,” he said.

“Knowledge is power and that’s the kind of information we need.”