A 36-year-old man is facing charges after police investigating a meth lab in Johnson City found a store receipt linking the man to the meth lab.
Officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Department, along with agents of the First Judicial District Drug Task Force, arrested David Laughren, 36, 146 Spring Drive, Johnson City, on a warrant charging him with promotion to manufacture methamphetamine.
On Dec. 1, agents of the DTF responded to the corner of E. Market Street and N. Roan Street in downtown Johnson City after city workers found a suspected meth lab in the trash.
Agents located a one-pot meth operation inside a plastic baggy along with an empty box of cold medication which contained pseudoephedrine, the primary ingredient in manufacturing meth.
Also inside the bag agents located a receipt showing the cold medication had been purchased at an Elizabethton pharmacy and gave officers the date and time of the purchase, the warrant for Laughren’s arrest said.
Using the purchase information from the receipt, agents were able to determine the cold medication had been purchased by Laughren using the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force website which tracks purchases of pseudoephedrine.
Following his arrest, Laughren was transported to the Carter County Detention Center, where he was later released.