Joseph Harold Ezekiel

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Surry County narcotics officers have raided a methamphetamine lab, their second one in less than a week.

According to Sheriff Graham Atkinson, his office obtained a search warrant for a residence at 139 Round Peak Church Road on Wednesday. Assisted by the State Bureau of Investigation and the Mount Airy Police Department, officers found a number of precursor chemicals at that location — but not the suspect, Joseph Harold Ezekiel, 50, of 195 Deerfield Lane.

With information from that search, officers obtained arrest warrants for Ezekiel, whom they located at his home. At that time, they also served a search warrant, discovering methamphetamine as well as equipment used to manufacture meth.

Although there was no lab at the Deerfield Lane residence, information indicated a lab had been there recently.

The arrest came on the heels of the meth lab raid in Ararat last week. Complaints from local citizens helped officers investigate, make undercover buys and search the home of Micah Lamar Swanson at 163 Pond Valley Road. He was arrested last Thursday.

“We will keep using the information we develop from these arrests and related investigations to go after any other meth labs in the county,” said Atkinson. “It may seem disheartening when we locate several labs like this. But the truth is we did not believe meth production had gone away. It just takes time to locate the labs and make arrests.”

Ezekiel was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, possessing precursor chemicals, maintaining a drug dwelling and possessing drug paraphernalia. His bond was set at $50,000