ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Nelms Drive is close to the Lakewood amphitheater and a mere 50-feet from the interstate. But it's hard to find without a map, and that's what made it perfect for a big drug lab to be hidden in plain sight.
Atlanta Police raided the house Wednesday and made a record seizure of methamphetamine.
The tree-lined street with tidy ranch houses is probably not too different from where you live. And the only thing that stood out about the little house on the corner was the big blue tarp that caught the wind like the sail of a ship; and the little red sign in the window that said the house was a meth lab.
"Wow… wow… wow," repeated Brenda Butler in disbelief. "And then to see I'm between the two houses. But like I said, (the residents) never bothered me. I never knew what was going on. He was a very presentable guy."
Butler was there when police raided the houses on either side of her. Police say one was the lab, the other the distribution point.
"My dogs started barking and I looked outside," she recalled. "And I saw SWAT coming in, and I said, 'Whoa!' That's all I could say was 'Whoa!' I looked out the window at that point because I knew there were going over there."
Police say they seized 40-pounds of crystal meth in the raids and enough liquid compound to make five times that amount.
"All combined, the street value of this seizure is over $10.8 million," said Atlanta Police Deputy Chief Darryl Tolleson.
Armando Ayala Ortiz, the man neighbors knew simply as 'Uncle,' is facing drug trafficking and other charges.
"He built all these fences," said Brenda Butler outside the home. "He was a really nice guy. I mean I have nothing bad to say about him. He made a mistake, and it's costing him; but he's a very nice guy and I liked him."
Neighbors say, looking back on it, there were some suspicious signs like the convenient hole in the fence to the interstate right across the street from the house; the strange cars coming by; and the eerie feeling they were being watched.
Which as it turned out, they were. By the Atlanta Police.
