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Local News
Saturday, January 07, 2006 - Last Updated: 7:32 AM
2 deputies hospitalized after
meth bust
4 men in Berkeley County facing drug charges
BY NOAH HAGLUND
The
Post and Courier
MONCKS CORNER - In the Berkeley County Sheriff's
Office's first meth bust of the year, two deputies were
hospitalized Friday after entering a home where several men
were arrested on charges of manufacturing methamphetamine.
The investigation of the mobile home on Oak Crest Drive also
led deputies to search a second suspected meth lab in the
same area between Moncks Corner and Summerville, said
Berkeley County sheriff's Capt. Whilden Baggett.
'Meth labs, we've been talking about them for the last
couple of years,' Baggett said. 'It seems that all the
things we thought and were planning for are coming true.'
Investigators responded to the first home between 2:30 and 3
p.m. after receiving a report of possible drug activity. Two
drug officers were exposed to fumes while securing the home,
Baggett said. They became dizzy, and one began having
breathing trouble.
They were alert and conscious at Roper St. Francis Medical
Center Berkeley, where they were treated and released, he
said.
During the afternoon, deputies in hazardous materials suits
exited the house just off the 2700 block of South Live Oak
Drive, carting out camping fuel and numerous clear bags full
of green, leafy material. The Sheriff's Office called the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to
investigate firearms found inside the home, Baggett said.
Seized marijuana totaled several pounds, he said.
Four men at the house will face multiple drug charges:
manufacturing methamphetamine, possession with intent to
distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to
distribute marijuana and trafficking ephedrine, a nasal
decongestant often used for making meth.
Baggett identified the men as Quinton Driggers, 30; David
Driggers, 37; Edward Kinney, 39; and Mark Dennis, 35. The
relationship between David and Quinton Driggers was unknown.
Dennis lives at the first home deputies searched, Baggett
said. Investigators later began searching a home where
Kinney lives on Compton Drive, less than a mile away, as a
suspected meth lab, he said.
Whitesville and Pine Ridge firefighters also responded,
along with Berkeley County Emergency Medical Services.
The Sheriff's Office dismantled at least 30 labs in 2005,
Baggett said, a number the agency expects to surpass in the
coming year.
Contact Noah Haglund at 937-5550 or at
nhaglund@postandcourier.com
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