Suspected Drug Lab Raided; Alleged Owner Arrested

Police raided a suspected drug lab producing hallucinogens in the township's Blackwood section, and arrested its alleged owner. 

The raid was the culmination of a joint investigation by the Gloucester Township Police Department Special Investigations Unit and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team into the sale of Dimethyltryptamine, known as DMT, from home in the 1500 block of Little Gloucester Road. 

The investigation revealed the DMT was being produced and sold at the home, authorities said. DMT, which is illegal to possess in the United States, is a psychedelic drug produced from the extraction of Mimosa hostilis root bark. 

Authorities executed a search warrant at the home Thursday. During the raid, the DEA team removed from the home the equipment, chemicals and compounds used to produce DMT. Quantities of DMT, heroin, psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana were recovered during the raid, police said. 

Robert Vickers, 38, the accused owner of the lab, was arrested and charged with a first-degree count of maintaining or operating a controlled dangerous substance production facility; distribution of a controlled dangerous substance; possession of a controlled dangerous substance; distribution of a controlled dangerous  within 1,000 feet of Charles W. Lewis Middle School; and possession of drug paraphernalia, a disorderly persons offense. 

Vickers was held in the Camden County Jail in lieu of $200,000 full cash bail.