METH LAB AND STOLEN
CARS FOUND NEAR NEW SMYRNA BEACH
An anonymous complaint
led Volusia County narcotics agents to a home
methamphetamine lab Sunday morning near New Smyrna
Beach that resulted in two narcotics arrests. The
investigation didn’t stop there, though. Sheriff’s
deputies discovered that the vehicle sitting in the
front yard had been reported stolen the previous
day, and then a man pulled up to the house driving
yet another stolen vehicle. The driver was arrested
for violation of probation, and an ongoing
investigation is being conducted concerning the
stolen vehicles.
The string of arrests
began at approximately 9:30 a.m. at 535 N. Glencoe
Road when investigators from the Volusia Bureau of
Investigation followed up on a tip that there was
narcotics activity at the home. As investigators
approached an apartment behind the main building,
they immediately noticed the telltale strong
chemical odor that accompanies meth labs. They
knocked on the door and spoke with Nickoles Lange,
who allowed the investigators into the apartment.
That’s when they spotted a butane torch on the
living room floor and several baggies nearby. These
materials are commonly used during the manufacture
of methamphetamine, and coupled with the chemical
smell they prompted the investigators to obtain a
search warrant. Lange and another man who was with
him, Robert Steedley, were detained as the
investigation continued.
When investigators first
entered the apartment, they found Steedley with a
smoking pipe, and then they found a baggie in his
pocket that had meth residue in it. The 34-year-old
Tavares man was arrested for possession of
methamphetamine and possession of drug
paraphernalia. A little while later the East Volusia
Narcotics Task Force assisted VBI in executing the
search warrant. A careful search of the apartment
turned up plenty of other meth-making materials and
drug residue that led to charging Lange, 47, with
manufacture of methamphetamines, possession of
methamphetamines, possession of listed chemicals and
possession of drug paraphernalia.
In addition to all of
the activity inside the apartment, there were
suspicious things going on outside, too. A Pontiac
Firebird was sitting in the front yard that fit the
description of a vehicle reported stolen to the
Edgewater Police Department on Saturday. A closer
inspection verified this. Then at about 1 p.m.
deputies spotted Eddie Selph, 23, behind the wheel
of a truck as he drove down Glencoe Road. Selph had
recently been arrested and deputies knew that he had
a suspended driver’s license. This led to charges of
driving with a suspended license and violation of
probation. It was then discovered that the truck he
was driving had also been reported stolen, but Selph
claimed that the truck had been given to him as a
gift. An investigation by the Sheriff’s Office’s
Auto Theft Unit is ongoing.
Steedley, Lange and
Selph were all booked into the Volusia County Branch
Jail in Daytona Beach. VBI is a multi-agency task
force that pools resources from nine local, state
and federal law enforcement agencies in order to
target mid- and upper-level narcotics traffickers as
well as racketeering and organized crime.
Participating agencies include the Volusia County
Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law
Enforcement, the Attorney General’s Office of
Statewide Prosecution, Daytona Beach Police
Department, Daytona Beach Shores Department of
Public Safety, DeLand Police Department, Port Orange
Police Department, New Smyrna Beach Police
Department and the U.S. Department of Immigration
and Customs Enforcement. VBI also is part of the
Central Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area, or HIDTA, which is a multi-agency task force
established by the U.S. Office of National Drug
Control Policy to combat drug trafficking along the
seven-county area hugging Central Florida’s I-4
corridor.
