Two people were taken into custody Monday after a traffic stop near Hamilton Place revealed a mobile meth lab and a small amount of marijuana in a vehicle.
Natasha Dunn, 23, and Ciana Howard, 21, were transported to the Hamilton County Jail on charges of conspiracy to manufacture meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of meth and possession of marijuana.
Police said the stop, which happened at 4:41 p.m. in the Walgreens parking lot at the corner of Gunbarrel and Shallowford roads, was for a vehicle registration violation on a white Honda Accord.
A Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force vehicle was in the parking lot until about 8:30 p.m.
Police spokeswoman Officer Rebecca Royval said that mobile meth labs “have become a more common occurrence” in Hamilton County.
The reasons, Royval said, include the labs are easily disposable, a lack of space other than a car and the possibility of raising concerns from neighbors.
“Your neighbors tend to get suspicious if you have a chemical smell (coming from your house),” she said. “If you’ve smelled it once, then you recognize it.”
With laws and regulations evolving with the manufacturing and distribution of meth, Royval said meth makers are being forced to become “more clever.”
Royval said Chattanooga police immediately contact the task force when meth is discovered.
“We don’t even touch it as city officers,” she said. “It’s something that the (task force) specializes in.”
Methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug and carries a minimum prison sentence of between five and 10 years for the first offense depending on amount, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.