Published: October 15, 2008 10:23 am         

Police say meth cook interrupted

ELKHART, Ind. — Elkhart police arrested a man they said was cooking methamphetamine in a vacant house. They also arrested a woman when she arrived to pick him up.

According to police, at 9:50 p.m. Monday officers from the Street Crimes Unit were following up a tip about a possible drug house at 164 S. Shore Drive. Offices said they walked around the house and saw a light on in an upstairs window. They also noticed a ladder leaning up against the house.

Police said they climbed the ladder and looked in the window and saw Joseph Buelna standing over chemicals that were cooking on a portable stove.

According to officers, Buelna attempted to flee but was apprehended in the same room. Police said they found a handgun near where the drugs were located. Buelna was then taken to Elkhart Police Department.

As officers were waiting for Indiana State Police to respond to arrive and recover the chemicals and render the area safe, a they said a woman, Kammi Pantoja, 25, of West Virginia parked near the house and walked up to it.

Police said that when they talked to her Pantoja “appeared to be under the influence or drugs or alcohol.” She took several field sobriety tests which police said she failed. Police said she declined to have a blood test taken and was then arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicate-refusal.

When officers impounded her vehicle they said they found a mobile meth lab in the trunk of the car that she had been driving.

Buelna was arrested on a charge of manufacturing of methamphetamine, a Class A felony. Pantoja was arrested on charges of manufacturing of methamphetamine, a Class A felony and the OWI-refusal charge.

The police will give their report to the county prosecutor’s office for review.