BATH

Police late this morning converged on a suspected methamphetamine lab at 24 Dummer St., then arrested a first-floor resident on a charge of aggravated drug trafficking.

Bath Police Chief Michael Field said this afternoon that Mark Corson, 35, is being held at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset on $2,000 cash bail.

The charge is aggravated  because Corson was living within 1,000 feet of Dike-Newell School, Field said, making it a felony.

Field said Bath police and members of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency converged on Corson’s residence at 11:45 a.m., to execute a search warrant. The MDEA agents arrived in hazmat suits and in vehicles attached to mobile labs.

“Methamphetamine labs are really dangerous, and you have to have the proper equipment,” Field said.

Within an hour of arrival, Field said, police had arrested Corson.

Bath police, MDEA agents and Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies had been investigating the case for about a week, Field said. Dave Beauregard, a Bath drug detective, had MDEA resources to work with, he said.

Bath Detective Sgt. Bob Savary worked alongside Beauregard.

Stephen McCausland. Department of Public Safety spokesman, said this marks the fourth suspected meth lab uncovered in Maine this year, with 13 such labs discovered in 2012.

A meth lab is a laboratory used for the illegal production of methamphetamine, a stimulant that in high doses can induce mania with accompanying euphoria, feelings of self-esteem and increased libido.