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WAYNE, N.J. -- Police closed Route 46 and kept patrons inside a hotel and restaurant after a "billowing cloud of white fumes" poured from a mobile meth lab parked outside in October.
Daily Voice broke the exclusive story the night of Oct. 28, after law enforcement sources said they caught a Camden County man mixing highly volatile chemicals to make the drug.
SEE: Arrest Made, DEA Responds To Parking Lot Meth Lab In Wayne
The discovery brought a host of emergency responding agencies -- including the DEA and the Passaic County Bomb Squad -- to the Tilted Kilt restaurant, located at the Ramada Inn, beginning around 9:30 p.m.
Minutes earlier, Officers Joseph Rooney and Rob Fernandez saw the dome light on and 34-year-old Christopher Gary Poole moving around inside a 2007 Chrysler Sebring, Wayne Police Capt. Laurence W. Martin told Daily Voice the next morning.
They watched briefly as Poole "began filtering liquids and pouring substances into clear water bottles," he said.
As Fernandez walked around to the passenger side, the car begin to fill with white fumes, Martin said.
The officers got Poole out and were nearly overcome by what they described as "a strong odor of ammonia," he said.
It turned out that Poole, of Barrington, was mixing ammonia nitrate, lighter fluid, lye, lithium, drain cleaner, salt, and pseudoephedrine "in an effort to manufacturer methamphetamine," the captain said.
He was also carrying syringes, Martin said.
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