Testing by a team of specialists has confirmed a house in Shiel Hill, Dunedin, had been used to make pure methamphetamine (P).
Chemicals, filters, heat sources and equipment for making P were found in the basement and around the Somerville St house, a rental property, on Monday morning when police executed a search warrant, Sergeant Chris McLellan said.
It appeared P had previously been manufactured there and could be again, but the lab was not operational.
Police and Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) scientists, wearing gas masks and boiler suits to protect their skin, completed forensic testing in the house yesterday.
The house was handed over to the occupants and its Dunedin-based owner, who was not aware of the drug operation, last night.
They were given clear instructions as to what standard the house needed to be cleaned.
Sgt McLellan said he did not know the quantity of the chemicals found nor how long the operation had been going, but occupants of the house were co-operating with police.
Cannabis was also found in the house.
Three of the seven occupants of the house, two women and a man, had been charged with cannabis possession and supply.
They are due to appear in the Dunedin District Court in the next week.
Sgt McLellan said police had to wait for the results from the ESR and of their inquiries before laying further criminal charges.
All drugs and drug related items, aside from samples ESR staff had taken, had been removed from the house and destroyed.
A neighbour said they believed children, including a baby, lived at the house.
Sgt McLellan declined to confirm this, but said all the occupants had somewhere to stay and were being looked after by family or friends.
It was possible people living in the house had been unaware of what was going on, he said.
The search warrant was originally executed in relation to a short police operation investigating suspecting drug dealing by some of the occupants.
The find at the Somerville St house is Dunedin's fifth confirmed methamphetamine lab in the past six years.
Sgt McLellan said equipment and ingredients that could be used in the manufacturing of P were also occasionally found in the city.
