Stow Woman Arrested on Meth-Making Charges near Kent School

A Stow woman is facing a charge of making methamphetamine in a Kent house less than two blocks from .

Lori L. Claeys, 37, of 2412 Echo Valley Drive, Stow, was being held in the Portage County jail Thursday after being arrested for making meth in Kent's South End.

Claeys was arrested Wednesday at 319 W. Elm St. after a joint investigation by the , Ravenna Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Youngstown Task Force. She is charged with one count of illegal manufacture of methamphetamine, a first-degree felony, in the vicinity of a school.

Kent Police Lt. Paul Canfield said the house was not a full-blown lab in the sense it was not filled with drug manufacturing tools.

"There’s a process they use now that’s fairly simple, and it’s also fairly compact,” Canfield said. “It was a simple, small, they call it a ‘one-pot’ manufacturing system."

Canfield said the Portage County Drug Task Force handled the removal of the chemicals and tools associated in the drug manufacturing. Any further charges related to the meth-making would be filed by the county drug task force.

Two men also were arrested during the meth-lab bust Wednesday.

Kenneth J. Brewster, 45, of 319 W. Elm St., was arrested and charged with permitting drug abuse, a first-degree misdemeanor. And Joshua B. Tipton, 27, also of Stow, was arrested on a warrant for a charge of obstruction of justice, a third-degree felony.

The house is owned by Susan Brewster of Streetsboro, according to Portage County Auditor's Office online records.

Claeys is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on the meth-making charge on Dec. 23.