Guilty Plea in Meth Lab Explosion Inside Federal Lab

A former security officer at a federal laboratory in Gaithersburg has pleaded guilty to trying to make methamphetamine in the facility, which caused an explosion.

WTOP reports Christopher Bartley entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt Friday. But Bartley claims he was only making the meth as part of an unauthorized training experiment.

Authorities found a recipe for making methamphetamine and some of the ingredients used in the drug after an explosion July 18 on the campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg. The incident at the agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce may have been caused by a chemical reaction during the manufacture of drugs, police said.

Montgomery County Police said pseudoephedrine, drain opener and a recipe for meth were found inside the lab.

Bartley resigned from the security force the day after the explosion.

An unidentified security officer was found suffering from burns at the scene of the explosion. Authorities told WTOP that officer claims he was injured trying to re-fill a cigarette lighter.