A 19-year-old man was charged with several felonies after investigators found an inactive lab likely used to produce a psychedelic drug in an apartment building two blocks west of Forsyth Park.
Savannah-Chatham police, the Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team and Savannah Fire & Emergency Services’ HAZMAT Team responded to the brown, eight-apartment building at the corner of Barnard and Hall streets about 1:30 p.m. Friday afternoon after receiving a tip about suspected drug activity, said CNT Agent Gene Harley, the agency’s spokesman.
As a precautionary measure, police evacuated the apartments and blocked Barnard to traffic from West Gwinnett to West Huntingdon Street while they searched the building.
Harley said CNT agents, specially trained in handling clandestine labs, discovered an inactive lab inside one of the apartments that they believed was used to produce Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a Schedule I narcotic that acts as a psychedelic when ingested. Alvin Joseph Wenzel was arrested at the scene and charged with numerous felonies related to the lab including manufacturing DMT.
Once they area in and around the building was deemed safe just before 5 p.m. residents were allowed back into their apartments and the streets around the building were reopened.
The investigation is continuing into the incident, Harley added.