Five local men face charges in federal court, allegedly involved in butane hash oil lab

March 30, 2016 5:50 pm

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

@anabottary

The massive mill fire in Providence last March is just one of three that have been sparked by butane hash oil labs across Rhode Island.
five local men are the first in the state to face charges in federal court for being allegedly involved but, the cases are not related.

"This activity is extraordinarily dangerous, because butane is highly flammable it can easily lead to explosion and fire,"says US Attorney, District of Rhode Island Peter Neronha.

Christopher white, of Warwick and Graeme Marshall of Cranston, both 50, were indicted after for that mill fire on Kinsley Avenue. The men allegedly used a portion of the warehouse to operate a lab.

26-year old Dillion Kantlehner was indicted after an explosion and fire at a South Kingstown home, where the kitchen area was used to operate a BHO lab.
A second person allegedly involved later died after suffering burns to 90 percent of his body.

In westerly, 41-year-old Scott Slagel has been charged after a fire in a multi-unit apartment building on Apache drive broke out.

And in West Warwick, police arrested 21-year old Tyler Crespo for allegedly running a full-scale manufacturing lab out of an apartment on Providence street, before a potentially deadly situation occurred.

"There was an officer working an unrelated traffic detail in the area when he thought something may be a miss. He recognized some of the signs of a possible drug manufacturing lab and alerted one of our sergeants who is assigned to the DEA task force," says Colonel Richard Silva of West Warwick Police.

A special agent in charge of DEA for New England, Michael Ferguson, says the increase in BHO has no only increased here in Rhode Island, but throughout the nation.

"A lot of that is attributed to the folks chase for the better high. They are looking for a more potent product and unfortunately they are willing to take and possibly put others in danger in order to produce and profit from them,"says Ferguson.