Police arrested a Gorham man on Sunday for making methamphetamine, his second arrest in six months for operating a meth lab.
Matthew Cole, 37, of Gorham was charged on May 5 with operating a meth lab and unlawfully possessing a firearm. He was on bail when police arrested him Sunday.
Gorham police went to the First Parish Congregational Church at about noon Sunday on a tip about a man suspected of dealing drugs there, Maine Drug Enforcement Administration and Gorham police said in a statement.
They found Cole outside the church with “numerous backpacks, bags, and other items,” including items described by police as elements of “one-pot methamphetamine laboratories,” some of which were in the process of producing the drug.
Cole was found to have 27 grams of methamphetamine in his possession, according to police.
According to MDEA, reports of one-pot meth labs have become less common in Maine because of increasing availability of the drug from the southwest border of the U.S. There have been four in 2023, down from 52 in 2018, 35 in 2019, eight in 2020, two in 2021 and none in 2022.
