Jacksonville motel evacuated after maintenance worker finds apparent meth lab

Police are investigating after maintenance workers found a possible methamphetamine lab in a motel.

Guests at the Diamond Inn were evacuated from their rooms for several hours as police investigated.

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A maintenance worker told Action News Jax reporter Kevin Clark that he found the paraphernalia inside a corner room near an exit sign on the second floor at the Diamond Inn

“I went in, I noticed some suspicious looking powders in a jar and one was in a Gatorade jug I believe,” Louis Blacknell said.

He said he saw Gatorade bottles, white powder residue and other ingredients.

The entire inn was cleared out until police deemed the motel safe.

Almost 100 people waited in a parking lot across the street for hours before the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office gave the all-clear.

“I was trying to get my wife and dogs before any explosions or stuff like that happened,” Richard Bailey, who stays in the room downstairs, said.

Motel employees said a man and woman checked into the room for about a week.

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No one was in the room when the lab was discovered. JSO said no one has been arrested yet.

They said ownership recently hired JSO officers as the motel tries to clean up its image.

“Drugs and prostitution, them days are over here,” Blacknell said.

Cox Media Group