This article was originally published on goerie.com on Oct. 18, 2017 by Tim Hahn. 

The suspect faces more charges after state police said they found suspected meth labs and suspected drugs during traffic stop Wednesday morning.

MEADVILLE — A Corry man wanted for more than a year on charges in a suspected methamphetamine lab investigation in Corry was caught in Crawford County early Wednesday morning and faces more drug charges in a traffic stop that led to his apprehension.

Shane R. Saunders, 34, was placed in the Crawford County Correctional Facility to await arraignment on charges including driving under the influence, false identification to law enforcement and manufacturing or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver in the traffic stop, which happened on Routes 6 and 19 in Woodcock Township on Wednesday at about 12:45 a.m., the Pennsylvania State Police in Meadville reported Wednesday morning.

State police troopers stopped Saunders’ vehicle for a summary violation, and during a search of the vehicle troopers found suspected marijuana, suspected methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and items suspected of being used in making methamphetamine, police reported. Members of the state police Clandestine Laboratory Response Team also seized and destroyed several suspected “one-pot” methamphetamine labs that were inactive, investigators said.

Saunders was wanted at the time of Wednesday’s arrest on charges including operating a methamphetamine lab, causing or risking a catastrophe and endangering the welfare of children in a Corry police investigation into a suspected methamphetamine lab that was found at an Airport Road apartment complex on Sept. 29, 2016. Investigators said emergency responders who went to the complex on a report of a fire found the remnants of a suspected lab in a dumpster, and when police later served a search warrant on an apartment they found more suspected methamphetamine-making materials.

Charged with Saunders in the Corry case was Ali A. Soety, 28, who pleaded guilty to charges of endangering the welfare of children and possessing items with intent to manufacture a controlled substance in the case and was sentenced in late April to 104 days to one year of confinement and five years of probation, according to court records.

At the time of Soety’s preliminary hearing in December, Corry police said that Saunders was in jail in Florida in another case. It was not known Wednesday when he returned to Erie County.

Corry Police Chief Rich Shopene said Wednesday that his department was in contact with the state police following Saunders’ apprehension and sent them a copy of his department’s warrant for Saunders. It was not known Wednesday morning when Saunders might be arraigned in the Corry case.

Return to goerie.com for updates. See Thursday’s Erie Times-News for more details.