One person is in custody after a meth lab was found early Thursday morning at a hotel on Jacksonville's Westside.
Just after 1:30 a.m., the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office responded to reports of a chemical smell at the Quality Inn at Commonwealth Avenue, just off I-295. When officers found meth lab materials in one of the rooms, people in the rooms nearby were evacuated to another side of the hotel for safety.
The JSO narcotics unit and Jacksonville Fire Rescue's hazardous materials team responded.
A man was arrested in the parking lot for possession of methamphetamine, possibly related to the investigation, police said.
According to the JSO's crime map, within a half-mile radius of the Quality Inn there have been two homicides, 25 thefts, five assaults, five vehicle thefts and seven burglaries over the past six months.
Last month, an armed man barricaded himself in the hotel for three hours before he was arrested by a SWAT team.
