Two men charged with cooking meth behind gas station on US 30

Two men with Valparaiso addresses were arrested Saturday on a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine after the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said that they were cooking meth in an outdoor lab located behind the Admiral gas station at 208 E. Morthland Drive in Center Township.

According to police, at 4:49 p.m. officers were dispatched to the Admiral after a woman advised the clerk there that “two subjects in the parking lot were manufacturing crystal methamphetamine in the woods behind the business.” On their arrival, police said, officers made contact with Dinzel Miller, 57, of 653 Axe Ave., and Matthew B. Puskac, 27, of 1101 Evans Ave., Apt. 2C, both of whom “had dilated pupils and were overly fidgety and anxious.”

Both men were carrying “backpacks which appeared to be extremely full” and each permitted officers to search the backpacks for weapons, police said. Inside Miller’s an officer located “two packages of Walgreen’s brand allergy pills containing pseudoephedrine, a twin pack of instant cold packs, Coleman premium blend camping fuel, a large elastic band, Rooto drain cleaner, Drano, coffee filters, and a hypodermic needle inside of a plastic case,” police said.

“I recognized these items as those used in the production of methamphetamine,” the investigating officer stated in his report.

Inside Puskac’s backpack, police said: several sets of pliers and a short section of rubber tubing.

Miller was subsequently persuaded to lead the investigating officer to the lab—a tent “deep into the woods south of the Admiral filling station”—and then to reveal the location of manufactured methamphetamine: in a bottle placed in a plastic bag behind a log “and apparently intentionally covered with vegetation,” police said.

Both Miller and Puskac were charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, a Class B felony punishable by a term of six to 20 years, police said. Miller was also charged with possession of precursors, a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years; and possession of a hypodermic needle, a Class D felony.

Miller and Puskac were medically cleared at Porter hospital, then transported to Porter County Jail.

The Indiana State Police’s Clandestine Methamphetamine Lab Team was dispatched to the scene to disassemble the lab, take possession of the hazardous chemicals, and place items of evidentiary value into custody, police said.