WASHINGTON – A former federal police officer has been charged with trying to make methamphetamine in a federal laboratory that exploded last month.
Christopher Bartley was charged Monday with a single count of attempting to manufacture methamphetamine.
The explosion occurred July 18 on the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 15 miles north of Washington.
Institute spokeswoman Gail Porter says Bartley was a lieutenant with the institute's police force. She says he resigned his position the day after the explosion.
Authorities who responded to the explosion found pseudoephedrine, Epsom salt and other materials associated with the manufacture of meth.
No attorney is listed for Bartley in online court records.
The institute is one of the nation's major physical science laboratories. About 3,000 people work there.
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