Merredin police raided the man’s Railway Parade property last Wednesday after receiving a tip-off from Australian Customs,

It will be alleged the man tried to import illegal glassware used to manufacture drugs.

It is understood police found a range of glass implements and chemicals as well as 17 marijuana plants in a hydroponic set-up in the garage.

“It was a very large setup, it looked like someone was experimenting with a variety of methods for drug manufacture throughout the house and the shed,” senior sergeant Ron Daniels said.

Organised Crime Unit officers and forensic scientists travelled from Perth last Thursday to confiscate the materials for analysis.

ChemCentre illicit drugs section manager Dr Dominic Reynolds said the chemicals they allegedly found were highly dangerous on their own, let alone if they were being mixed.

“The people that make these drugs often have no chemical knowledge or chemical training and they often cause burns and explosions,” Dr Reynolds said.

“There’s a lot of flammable solvents so it doesn’t take much to start a fire.

“We’ve had a number of house fires in Perth where people were making drugs and set the house on fire and burnt the house down, and in the USA we’ve had people die from exposure to dangerous chemicals when trying to make drugs.”

Dr Reynolds said anyone who dealt with these chemicals presented a danger to themselves and to their neighbours.

“One of the other concerns is that potentially the house has been contaminated, which is a big problem for the next person to stay in that house, especially if they’ve got little kids crawling on the carpet and so on.”

He said it was the first clandestine drug lab to be discovered in the Wheatbelt for some time, although raids in Perth and Kalgoorlie were not uncommon.

“We do rely on information from local people and in the Wheatbelt there’s a lot of space between people – so unless the perpetrators are seen buying glassware and chemicals it can be difficult to track them down.”

Dr Reynolds said if police hadn’t received the tip-off from Australian Customs, the consequences could have been serious.

He said apart from making and selling drugs anyone involved in a clandestine laboratory could blow themselves up or burn down the house.