Meth Lab Discovered in Fort Lauderdale Motel Room

Police find small meth lab in Relax Inn on South Federal Highway after responding to call of disturbance

Officers discovered a small meth lab in a room at a Fort Lauderdale motel Monday afternoon while responding to a call of a disturbance, police said.

Fort Lauderdale Police were called to the Relax Inn at 1851 South Federal Highway to break up a verbal argument between a woman and two men. Police identified two of the people as Michael "Ty" Byrd and Tanya Jones. The second man's name was not immediately released. Jones was arrested on unrelated charges after authorities say they found prescription pills in her possession without a prescription.
 
Management at the motel asked police to escort the woman and two men to their room and remove all of their personal belongings. While being escorted to the room, the woman told officers that one of the men was cooking meth in their room, police said.
 
Police discovered what appeared to be a small meth lab inside room 31. Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue arrived on scene and evacuated the hotel as a precaution.
 
Michael Case, who had just arrived to the hotel two hours before the Labor Day incident, had made a run to the grocery store and when he got back he saw the commotion.
 
"I'm next door and I almost walked into the yellow line. And I was like 'what the hell's going on?'" he said.

Another resident said she's seen a lot of illegal activity while living at the motel for the past three years.
 
"We were concerned cause I have three small children cause their room is like right there," said Trese, who didn’t want to give her last name. "Like, a lot of prostitution and drug related and a lot of traffic in and out of there, specially around the holidays."
 
The DEA Clandestine Lab Team responded to the scene to secure the lab and remove any toxic chemicals.
 
Police did not release the name of the suspects and said charges are pending.

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