Seven Arrested In East Tulsa Meth Lab Bust

NewsOn6.com & Emory Bryan, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Seven people are behind bars after a meth lab bust early Monday morning in East Tulsa. 

Tulsa Police served a search warrant at two houses in the 2500 block of South 135^th East Avenue shortly after 6 a.m. and found a large meth making operation and several stolen cars. 

Police recovered all the ingredients of a working lab, including boxes of over the counter pseudoephedrine used as the main ingredient.

It took officers more than 4 hours to clear out the dangerous chemicals and board up the homes. 

Police say they arrested Kelly Watts, Mark Jones, Vince Jones, Shelly Steelman, David Morris, Destiny Watson and Jeremy Bobbitt. 

All were charged with making meth and told police they'd been in the houses for at least two days.

The raid was a surprise to the neighbors. The discovery of a drug operation was not.

"I've come out here and taken pictures of people's license plates and they'll speed off, but they'll come back, they loop right back around, it was like a drive through really," David Payne, a neighbor, said.

Police had to call in animal control officers to pick up several animals at the homes including two horses. Police say there are 18 vehicles on the property which police believe are all stolen.

The neighbor is happy with the arrests, but says it's happened here before.

"Don't celebrate too much because they'll be right back here in just a few day, and that's not the police, that's a prosecution deal, but I hope they got enough evidence this time they can just put them away, or long enough that they learn their lesson," Payne said.

The cost of the cleanup will be well into the thousands of dollars, just for the lab, and add to that the cost of animal control, code enforcement, towing all the stolen cars, it was an expensive morning for taxpayers.