By: Jillian Wilson
jwilson@cbs4qc.com
A long time meth lab is busted near a Galesburg school.
Police say the lab had been up and running on Abingdon Street for 4 years.
A neighbor says he had no clue anything illegal was going on, but he did say something wasn't right about the house across the street.
"I would always see cars go over to the house day and night and I had no idea what the deal was or what was going on over there because I have never met those people," says Chris Pacheco, a neighbor.
Even though Chris Pacheco didn't know his mysterious neighbors, police sure did.
The four had been on their radar for years.
In fact, Steven Cramer was considered Knox County's most wanted offender.
"It's the most dangerous. The most labor intensive and the most costly that law enforcement has to deal with," says Rene Sandoval, Narcotics Enforcement Group director.
Pacheco says he saw the bust first hand back in January.
"It was a first time for me seeing something like that, it was really shocking," says Pacheco.
He says it was surreal seeing his neighborhood become a crime scene.
"There were tons of cops going in the house, there was people in hazmat suits going in there, cause they didn't know what they were going to find," says Pacheco.
The fact that the lab was so close to his house was what bothered him most.
"The drug that they were doing didn't shock me, but the fact that they were actually manufacturing the meth and selling it out of the house," says Pacheco.
Pacheco says he's learned his lesson, and next time he'll speak up.
"If I knew that was going on, I would have said something. But I had no idea, I had never met the guy. I had no idea who he was," says Pacheco.
If convicted, each of the four suspects could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
