ALBANY, GA (WALB) -
Tonight Albany Police remain on the lookout for a man who dropped a mini-meth lab in a backpack and ran from police Sunday.
Drug agents say meth is a growing drug problem in South Georgia.
And smaller mobile meth labs are posing a bigger danger for the community.
About 10:15 Sunday night The Police officer spotted a suspicious person in the one thousand block of West Oglethorpe, and when the officer approached him the man took off running, dropping his backpack. Then smoke started billowing out of it.
This is a look at the backpack that the suspicious man dropped. Inside it, a bottle used to cook meth, called a generator, and a bottle of anhydrous ammonia, two bottles of drain opener, grinders and baggies.
A.D.D.U. Commander Major Bill Berry said "It was the remnants of a meth lab. They had one container in there that was reacting from just being stored up."
The man got away, running west across Slappey. Drug experts were called to handle the smoking bag.
Berry said "Fortunately the officers responded the appropriate way. They started to look at it and see what it was. And then when they realized it was smoke, they backed off."
That smoke can be deadly. Albany Dougherty Drug Agents geared up in Hazmat suits to examine and break down the meth lab. Inside that generator bottle they found iodized salt and sulfuric acid, that is used as the last process in cooking meth.
Berry said "We could not find finished product. Presumed that when officers approached him he dropped the bag and kept whatever product he had and ran. The finished product, that's the value of it."
Drug agents say this shows how much smaller the meth lab process has gotten, and why it is so dangerous.
Berry said "If you just happen to be standing right next to somebody that dropped something or it reacts bad, then you have a reaction."
Police describe the man who dropped the backpack as white, between 40 to 50 years old. 5-foot-10 inches tall, 190 pounds. Wearing a white polo style stripped shirt and blue jeans.
Also in that backpack was a express shipping envelope, so drug agents wonder if the meth cooker was planning to ship the meth to someone.
A reward is being offered for information leading to this man.
Call the Albany Dougherty Drug Unit at 430-5150.
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