By NICOLE LOGGINS / Staff Writer

HARPERSVILLE – On Jan. 31 the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force received a call from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office regarding a possible methamphetamine laboratory, according to a press release issued by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s deputies conducted a traffic stop on Ploughman Circle in Harpersville and found the driver of the vehicle, Joshua Alan Cannon, had multiple warrants for his arrest.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies discovered articles used to manufacture methamphetamine in Cannon’s vehicle. Investigators with the county’s drug task force responded to the scene at the request of sheriff’s deputies and located an active methamphetamine lab in the vehicle.

The Harpersville resident was charged with unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance with a bond of $100,000 and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia with a bond $1,000.

“Thanks to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies’ partnership with the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force, and to the deputies’ training and experience that allowed them to identify the ingredients and components of a meth lab, which prevented this individual from endangering the citizens of Shelby County by distributing or consuming his product,” said Lieutenant Kevin Turner, Commander of SCDETF.

The SCDETF consists of law enforcement officers from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Alabaster Police Department, Pelham Police Department, Harpersville Police Department, Helena Police Department, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office, and the Alabama National Guard Counter Drug Program. The SCDETF is funded by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs and the Shelby County Commission.

The SCEDTF encourages citizens to report any illegal activity by phone at 670-0436 or by visiting the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office’s website, Shelbyso.com.