Arson Task Force Makes Several Arrests, Finds Honey Oil Lab During Sweep On Monday

The multi-agency Shasta Arson Task Force did a compliance sweep of registered arson offenders on Monday. Visits were made to 25 different registrants and 22 of them were found to be in compliance. Cases will be filed against two people for moving and failing to re-register their new addresses. At the home of 32-year-old Caleb Eckert on Leopard Drive in Anderson, a 22 caliber rifle was found along with drug paraphernalia and Eckert was arrested. At a home on Our Road in Lakehead, 38-year-old John Lloyd was arrested on an outstanding warrant from a fire with injuries in 2021 that resulted from an explosion of a Butane Honey Oil Lab. While serving the warrant Monday, the task force reported finding a functioning Butane Honey Oil Lab still under pressure inside a shed. Drug agents with SINTF rendered the lab safe and disassembled it. They also reported finding 20 Pounds of concentrated cannabis and 80 Pounds of processed marijuana bud. Lloyd was booked into jail. While driving back to Redding, one of the arson task force members saw the driver of a box truck flick a cigarette butt out of his window on Interstate 5 near Wonderland Boulevard, and he was ticketed.

– Steve Gibson