The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 5, 2009

Suspected meth lab leads to searches, arrests

By Dan Nienaber

BLUE EARTH — A 48-year-old Blue Earth man was arrested during a traffic stop on Highway 169 after police reported finding a mobile methamphetamine lab in his car.

The officers who stopped Rick Allen Rochefort in Blue Earth at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday smelled a strong chemical odor coming from the 1995 Pontiac Grand Am, a Faribault County Sheriff’s Department report said. Rochefort, who was released from prison in February, had a warrant for his arrest that had been issued by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

A woman who was with Rochefort, 40-year-old Teresa Ann Hinton of Elmore, also was arrested.

The South Central Drug Task Force also obtained search warrants for Rochefort’s homes in Blue Earth and Winnebago. Methamphetamine, another methamphetamine lab and drug paraphernalia were found as a result of those searches, the report said.

Rochefort’s arrest was the result of an investigation that started on Sept. 17 when Richard Robert Rochefort Jr., 50, and Conrad Ray Boynton, 56, both of Blue Earth, were arrested in Fairmont. They were purchasing items used to make methamphetamine.

Boynton pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession methamphetamine precursors on Oct. 19. Richard Rochefort is scheduled to go to trial for that charge and others on March 31.

Rick Rochefort served three years and seven months in prison for manufacturing methamphetamine before his release in February. He was arrested in January 2005 after investigators searched his home in Delavan and found a methamphetamine lab.

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