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PROVO — New search warrants unsealed Thursday reveal that in addition to finding methamphetamine precursors in a BYU student's apartment, drug agents also found meth residue.
Bryce Cazier, 22, was charged Nov. 10 in 4th District Court with having precursors or equipment for a clandestine laboratory, a first-degree felony.
Provo police, the Utah Major Crimes Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Agency believe Cazier, a BYU student studying Spanish, had a meth lab set up inside his room at the Riviera Apartments, 1505 N. Canyon Road, next to the BYU campus.
Cazier's attorney, however, contends his client has legitimate hobbies that include making his own products, like soap, using herbal extracts.
But a newly released search warrant states: "A field test swab was applied to the surface of (Cazier's) laptop computer seized and showed a positive result for the presence of methamphetamine." Another warrant states that an investigator "was able to field test a laptop that was taken from the suspect's room. A methamphetamine swab was used on the laptop and it showed positive for methamphetamine residue being on the laptop."
The search warrants were served on Cazier's phone and laptop, and a third warrant was served so that investigators could draw blood to test whether Cazier had any meth in his system.
The combination of these chemicals is unusual and serves no commonly used purpose, other than the production of methamphetamine.
–Statement from warrant
Earlier search warrants showed that investigators seized "chemicals including drain cleaner (sulfuric acid), lighter fluid, acetone, denatured alcohol, Coleman fuel," various empty blister packs of items containing pseudoephedrine, and lithium battery packs from his apartment.
"The combination of these chemicals is unusual and serves no commonly used purpose, other than the production of methamphetamine," one of the newly-released warrants states.
On Wednesday, new unrelated criminal charges were filed against Cazier.
He was charged with two counts of theft, a class B misdemeanor, in Orem Justice Court. The charges stem from an alleged shoplifting incident at an Orem state liquor store, 1688 N. State.
According to a police report, the manager of the store called police on Nov. 28 to report that employees had detained a man who had shoplifted liquor during a previous visit to the store.
