Winnipeg police uncover meth lab

A routine drug search led Winnipeg police to discover and dismantle a laboratoryused to produce methamphetamine in the city's Old Tuxedo neighbourhood.

The arrest of a 28-year-old man after a traffic stop at Renfrew Street and Corydon Avenue on Friday nightpromptedpoliceto get awarrant to search a home in the 200 block of Edgeland Boulevard, police said Sunday.

Whenofficers went into the home early Saturday, they found five grams of crystal methamphetamine,chemicals, beakers, test tubes and other glassware. Small amounts of ecstasy and marijuana were also found, police said.

The officers immediately called in the fire department's hazardous materials team and a clandestine lab unit, which investigated further.

Several people living near thebuilding were ordered out of their homes as a precaution until officers deemed the area safe enough. Some people stayed on a transit bus stationed near the scene while the meth lab was dismantled.

A 28-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman face drug-related charges, police said.They were released on a promise to appear in court at a later date. Police did not identify them.

In late August,police seized nearly $900,000 worth of meth from a home on Moldan Bay, but there was no indication the drugs were produced there. Police described it as the largest meth seizure in Winnipeg history.

The last time police publicly reported finding a meth lab was in May 2008,after a raid on a third-floor suite at the Madison Memorial Lodge on Evanson Street.

About 85 residents of the building many of them seniors or people with mental illnesses were forced out of their homes for a few hours during the nighttime raid.