MIDDLEPORT — A Middleport Police investigation into narcotics trafficking in the Cole Street area resulted in five arrests and multiple criminal charges.

On Friday, June 15, and into the early hours of Saturday morning, Middleport officers executed a search warrant at the Cole Street residence of James A. Williams.

Arrested at the scene were Williams, Amber Ebersbach, Eddie E. Rhodes, Kathy Rey and Sonja Stiffler. All are residents of Middleport.

According to a news release by the Middleport Police Department, Williams is charged with felony permitting drug abuse and misdemeanor possession of drug abuse instruments; Ebersbach is charged with misdemeanor drug paraphernalia, felony tampering with drugs, felony trafficking in drugs (heroin), felony possession of controlled substance; Rhodes is charged with two felony counts of trafficking in drugs (heroin), misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, felony tampering with drugs, three counts of felony possession of a controlled substance; Rey and Stiffler are each charged with one misdemeanor county of possession of drug abuse instruments and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance.

Officers from the Pomeroy Police Department also assisted in the arrests.

This was the second meth lab discovery in a matter of days, with two people having been arrested late Thursday evening following the discovery of a meth lab at the Meigs Motel.

Donald P. Carnahan, 31, of Long Bottom, and Leann C. Dill, aka Rendell, 30, of Pomeroy, were arrested in connection with a lab manufacturing methamphetamine in a guest room of the Meigs Motel. A young child, reportedly Rendell’s child, was removed from the scene by Meigs County Children’s Services.

Rendell and Carnahan appeared in Meigs County Court on Friday where they were arraigned on one count each of illegal possession of chemicals, a felony of the second degree. Both are scheduled for a hearing at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Carnahan was also charged in mid-May with tampering with drugs (felony three), possession of chemicals (felony three), and drug paraphernalia (misdemeanor four) in connection with a meth lab discovered in Middleport.