Richland County deputies charge two for manufacturing meth

Richland County deputies charged two people over the weekend for manufacturing methamphetamine, according to sheriff’s department officials.

Sheriff Leon Lott said Artis Welch, 45, and Dana Gainey, 44, have been charged with manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. Welch will be formally charged once he is released from the hospital.

Lott said just before 7:30 p.m. on Sunday deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 100 block of Southeast Sedgewood Road off Harmon Road in reference to a citizen’s 911 call that a woman was screaming at the location. When deputies arrived, Lott said, they could hear a verbal altercation going on inside of a mobile home.

Lott said deputies were able to observe a burn pile, Coleman fuel, brake fluid and partially burnt cans commonly used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine outside of the mobile home. Deputies called for the sheriff’s department’s narcotics unit, bomb squad, special response team and investigators to the scene.

As deputies approached the home, Lott said, Welch and Gainey turned off the lights and allegedly began to destroy evidence of methamphetamine manufacturing inside the home. The Columbia Fire Department was called in to set up a HAZMAT team around the mobile home for decontamination.

Welch and Gainey were eventually taken into custody without incident, Lott said. Welch requested to be transported to a local hospital after reporting pain to deputies.

Gainey was transported to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, as will Welch upon his release, Lott said.