Man arrested for burglary, meth lab found in Austintown

Staff report

AUSTINTOWN

Two people were arrested on burglary charges Tuesday night, while at the same address authorities seized methamphetamine manufacturing evidence.

No charges have been filed in connection to the suspected meth lab.

Raymond S. Betts, 32, of North Roanoke Avenue, will be arraigned at 1 p.m. Monday in Mahoning County Area Court on one charge of burglary, a first-degree felony.

Austintown police were called to a home in the 200 block of South Main Street about 5:40 p.m. Tuesday after a relative of the homeowner called police. The owner of the residence is incarcerated at the Mahoning County jail.

Police found Betts and a juvenile inside the home, and they came out after police ordered them to. Both were arrested, and the juvenile was transferred to the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center. Authorities entered the home to see if anyone else was there and discovered a methamphetamine lab.

“When inside [officers] had observed some evidence that they had been manufacturing methamphetamine on the property,” said Austintown Lt. Jeff Solic, commander of the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force. “There was no active manufacturing going on right then. It was not going at the time of the burglary – whether there was a cook earlier that day or the day before, there’s no way to tell.”

Items used to manufacture the drug were seized by police, and no one has been charged in that drug case as authorities investigate the evidence seized Tuesday night.