New Kent meth lab bust defendants sentenced in federal court

Whitney Renee Marciniak, left, and Jason Andrew Meade, right, will serve at least three years in federal prison.

Two suspects who were arrested in a May 2014 meth lab raid will each serve a minimum of three and a half years in a federal penitentiary.

Whitney Renee Marciniak, 24, of the 200 block of N. Ivy Street, Highland Springs, and Jason Andrew Meade, 26, of the 6300 block of Hopewell Road, New Kent, were sentenced to lengthy terms of prison time following proceedings in federal court.

In May 2014, New Kent SWAT team officers and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) descended on a ramshackle trailer parked at a New Kent campground. Inside the trailer authorities found a methamphetamine lab along with a marijuana growing operation. Marciniak, Meade, and a third suspect, Nathaniel Blake Atkins, were arrested and taken into custody.

In October 2014, New Kent Commonwealth’s Attorney Linwood Gregory dropped charges in the county in accordance to law and the duo was indicted at the federal level on the same eight charges. They were each charged with one count of the following: manufacturing methamphetamine, conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm while in possession of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine, possession of heroin, possession of cocaine, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance (heroin), and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

Marciniak received a 41-month sentence of incarceration while Meade will serve a 51-month sentence. Meade received the extra 10 months due to being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm as he manufactured methamphetamine.

The duo will begin serving their federal time upon conclusion of serving time from New Kent. Both Meade and Marciniak are serving one year sentences from stealing car batteries and wire in multiple larcenies that occurred in April and May of 2014.