Ex-con uses day care as meth lab

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Police recovered two meth labs, various chemicals, hypodermic needles, drug paraphenelia and pornography at a home on Stennis Avenue. What makes this drug bust especially troubling is that the home doubled as a day care for nine children.

One neighbor said, "Been here thirty years and this is unreal. I just can't believe it. It's unreal."

Police arrested Mark Sumrall for the drug operation and he is now facing twelve serious charges including nine counts of child endangerment, two counts of manufacturing meth within 1500 feet of a day care and one count of generating hazardous waste in the manufacture of meth.

Sumrall is well known to drug officers in Jackson County. He had recently been released from prison after being convicted of a cocaine felony.

Another neighbor told us, "Shocked that drugs were found there, but not shocked that Mark Sumrall was arrested. It's passed due."

Alfred and Brenda Sumrall and caregiver Carolyn Agodkin were also arrested. They were each charged with nine counts of child endangerment.

The neighborhood where this happened is usually a quiet neighborhood. However, the chemicals used to make these drugs could have shattered that quiet.

Police said Sumrall was using the "Shake n' Bake" method of producing meth and it's especially dangerous.

Lt. Curtis Spiers with the Jackson County Narcotics Task Force told us, "The new method that were seeing every things put into one container. High-heat, high explosive, high pressure generated. You're mixing caustic chemicals and when mixed together makes a bomb. Some of the chemicals that are used in the shake n' bake meth lab are the same chemicals that Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City."

The parents of the children that received care at the home have been notified and only one child, Sumrall's daughter, was there when police conducted the search. She is now in protective custody and her father is headed back to state prison.

The caregiver, Carolyn Agodkin, remains in jail. The parents, Alfred and Brenda Sumrall, posted bail Wednesday afternoon.