| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
TSA agent arrested for involvement in meth operation
COLUMBIA, Tenn. –
An agent with the Transportation Security Administration at Nashville International Airport is jailed in Maury County after authorities busted a meth operation Tuesday night.
Members of the Maury County Drug Task Force were conducting a routine parole check when they discovered the pungent smell of an alleged "cook" in progress at the Hampshire House Apartments in Columbia.
Police arrested two people including Erin Barger, a 29-year-old TSA screener.
Nashville's News 2 Investigates obtained photographs that show the woman being led to the Maury County jail wearing a decontamination suit.
Drug agents said the suit was necessary because everything in her apartment was possibly exposed to chemicals associated with methamphetamines.
"We found a one pot meth cook. The [pink] stuff on the bottom is the binders from sudafedrine and ammonia nitrate and the black is burned out pieces of lithium. This liquid here is Coleman camp fuel. If this bottle explodes, this whole complex goes up in a short amount of time," a Maury County drug agent explained.
When asked whether Barger had anything to say regarding the incident, the drug agent responded by saying, "She made statement she worked with TSA as a screener. She was asked could she pass a drug screen. Her words, she [said she] ‘didn't want to talk about it.'"
Barger's boyfriend James Wall was also taken into custody.
Nashville's News 2 Investigates went to the apartment and Wednesday and found several doors with red notices that read, "Warning."
Thirty-four-year-old resident Orlandus Richardson has one of the signs on his door.
