2 Georgians sentenced for exploding drug lab

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - A judge has sentenced two Fulton County residents to federal prison after officials say their secret drug lab exploded and burned for days.

Officials say 46-year-old Coleman Warnock is a convicted felon with a criminal history starting in the early 1990s and 44-year-old Adrian Banks is a convicted drug trafficker.

On July 6, 2013, police say Warnock and Banks were working in the basement of a Fairburn, Georgia home manufacturing PCP when some of the chemicals ignited and set the lab on fire.

During the next two days, the home used in the two suspects' drug manufacturing practice burned to the ground. Investigators on the scene discovered canisters of chemicals and safety equipment.

Based on the amount of chemicals recovered, the Drug Enforcement Agency said the lab was one of the largest in the United States.

DNA found on some equipment recovered matched Warnock and Banks' DNA, and police quickly arrested the two suspects.

“Their clandestine laboratory put an entire community at risk through their illicit enterprise,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak in a statement. “That risk became reality when the chemicals they were using to produce the poison exploded, causing an inferno that lasted for two days. The fire that destroyed the home could have injured neighbors nearby but thankfully, it did not. Nor did it destroy the evidence that landed these two long federal sentences.”

Warnock pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute and manufacture phencyclidin. A judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and $85,000 in restitution. Banks was sentenced to 20 years and two months in prison, five years of supervised release, and $85,000 in restitution.