Long Beach police discovered a drug lab in a Los Cerritos apartment while responding to an injury call Saturday afternoon, but no arrests have been made yet, authorities said.
Officials said police initially responded to a call of an injured woman in the 3900 block of Virginia Road at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 21.
Once there, police determined the woman was not seriously injured but that she may have been the victim of a crime, said Long Beach police spokesman Benjamin Hearst.
“Their investigation led officers to an apartment in the area where they located evidence of what appeared to be a drug lab,” Hearst said.
The apartment was unoccupied.
Narcotics detectives responded to the incident and found evidence of a possible DMT lab, an acronym for the psychedelic drug, Dimethyltryptamine.
Detectives in charge of the investigation were suited up in personal protective and hazmat equipment, per protocol, officials said.
However, because of the similarity in outfits to first responders dealing with COVID-19-related incidents, authorities sent out a notice to the public.
🚨#LBPD located a drug lab in the 3900 blk of Virginia Rd. Clean up teams will be wearing protective equipment and hazmat gear to collect evidence and demobilize the lab. This incident is NOT COVID-19 related. #LBPD
— Long Beach PD (CA) (@LBPD) March 22, 2020
The woman’s involvement is not yet known at this time and no arrests have been made, authorities said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact LBPD’s Drug Investigations section at 562-570-7221 or send anonymous tips to 800-222-8477.