Things were starting to return to normal in downtown Conyers Friday morning, several hours after the discovery of a rolling meth lab prompted authorities to block off a several block area near the Rockdale County Courthouse.
Conyers police Chief Gene Wilson told the AJC at 9:30 a.m. that all but a short stretch of Pine Street between Pine Street Elementary School and Milstead Avenue had been reopened.
"We're waiting for the remaining articles that the [Drug Enforcement Administration] has segregated to be taken away by the DEA," Wilson said.
He said all the chemicals that had caused concerns earlier in the morning had been separated and "there's no longer any danger. The school is going to go back in session and all the county administration buildings have been reopened."
The incident began around 5 a.m. when a Conyers police officer stopped a pickup truck on Milstead Avenue between Main and Glade streets for having a missing tail light, Conyers police Chief Gene Wilson told the AJC.
After discovering the suspected meth lab set up in the bed of the truck, police blocked off a 500-foot radius around the pickup. In that area were Rockdale County Courthouse parking lots, Pine Street Elementary School and about 20 to 30 other businesses, including county administrative offices, Wilson said.
Authorities set up the 500-foot perimeter due to the caustic nature of the chemicals and breezy conditions in the area, according to Wilson.
Officers found "a fair amount of methamphetamine that was already in methamphetamine form and we found a lot of the chemicals that are used to make meth," Wilson said. "And, according to one of the suspects, meth was in the truck cooking."
The two suspects were taken into custody and taken to Rockdale County Hospital to be decontaminated, Wilson said.
Police charged the pickup driver, John David Gray, 39, of Conyers, and his passenger, Terry Lynn Johnson, 50, of Covington, with numerous drug charges.
School officials bused students from Pine Street Elementary to Conyers Middle School to await the all-clear signal.
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