Police officer ran meth lab at his home, cops say
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LONG BRANCH, N.J. - A domestic disturbance call at a veteran police officer's home in a residential New Jersey town led to the discovery of a methamphetamine lab he was operating there, authorities said.
Christopher Walls, a 19-year veteran of the Long Branch force, was suspended without pay from his job following his arrest Saturday night. It wasn't known Monday if he's retained an attorney.
Police who had responded to the domestic disturbance call at the Long Branch home were told by someone there that Walls was operating the lab, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. A state police hazmat team responded and found equipment and substances commonly used to make meth in the home's basement and in a shed on the property, along with books about making the drug, explosives and poison.
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Authorities also found an open, unsecured gun safe with two long guns, four handguns, eight high-capacity magazines and ammunition inside. The safe was accessible to a child living in the home, police said.
Walls, 50, was charged with maintaining or operating a narcotics production facility, manufacturing and possessing methamphetamine, risking widespread injury, child endangerment, and a weapons charge. He faces several decades in prison if convicted on all counts.