Five people were arrested Wednesday after a search warrant was executed at a Starke County residence.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, Knox City Police Department and the Probation Department went to 11240 E. State Road 8 and announced their presence at the residence. Officers knocked a few times and attempted to kick in the door. At that time, Austin Owens opened the door for the police. An officer read the contents of the search warrant and police conducted a search.
A safe found in Austin Owens’ room reportedly contained several capsules with residue, three bags of a white powdery substance that later field-tested positive for methamphetamine, razors, a bag filled with pills, a bag with a white crystal-like substance and other paraphernalia. In another room, police allegedly found a box filled with a bag of a crystal-like substance, a bag of a green leafy substance that later field-tested positive for marijuana, three bags of a substance that field-tested positive for meth, several pieces of drug paraphernalia and money.
When police searched the outside of the house, the fire department was called to put out a fire in a burn barrel in the back yard. It had burned out by the time the fire department arrived. In the rubble, officers found the remnants of a one-pot meth lab.
All of the people in the house at the time of the search were arrested. Alicia Drabik, 23, of Knox; Kimberly Elliott, 25, of Knox; Austin Owens, 24, of Knox; and Jason Brooks, 35, of South Bend, were all charged with Dealing in Methamphetamine/Cocaine, Maintaining or Visiting a Common Nuisance and several other drug possession charges. Jaime Ramirez, 18, of Brooke, Indiana was arrested on a Common Nuisance charge.
