Major drug lab explosion sends Powder Springs man to prison

A Powder Springs man faces 15 years in federal prison and five additional years of supervised release for his part in the 2013 explosion of a drug lab in the basement of a Fairburn home in Fulton County, described by prosecutors as one of the largest clandestine drug labs in the country.

Coleman Warnock, 46, was sentenced in the case July 23 by U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg of the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.

He is in federal custody, awaiting prison placement, records show.

The Department of Justice issued a press release Wednesday, stating Warnock was one of two men conspiring to manufacture and distribute phencyclidine, a psychedelic controlled substance commonly known as “PCP” and “angel dust” from a clandestine laboratory in the basement of a house, which exploded and burned for two days in July 2013.

Warnock, along with co-conspirator Adrian Banks, put an entire community at risk, U.S. Attorney Byung Pak said.

“That risk became a reality when the chemicals they were using to produce the poison exploded, causing an inferno that lasted for two days,” Pak said. “The fire that destroyed the home could have injured neighbors nearby but thankfully, it did not. Nor did it destroy the evidence that landed these two long federal sentences.”

Warnock and Banks’ drug lab was one of the largest ever discovered on the east coast, DEA Agent Robert Murphy, of the Atlanta Field Division, said.

“When these defendants chose to manufacture PCP, the subsequent explosion and fire proved to be a recipe for disaster,” Murphy said. “Not only was the structure burned to the ground, but surrounding neighbors were put at risk and inconvenienced for several days as public safety and law enforcement officials worked tirelessly to snuff out the two-day burning fire.”

Court records show Warnock is a multiconvicted felon whose criminal history dates back to the early 1990s, and Banks is a convicted drug trafficker.

They were working in their drug den on July 6, 2013, when some of the chemicals they were using ignited, court records show.

Investigators recovered numerous barrels and canisters of chemicals as well as protective equipment including suits, gloves and respiratory masks.

Based on the quantity of chemicals recovered by officers, the DEA determined the illicit lab was one of the largest in the country, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said, adding that Warnock and Banks’ DNA matched that taken from some of the protective equipment recovered from the blaze.

In addition to his prison term, Warnock, who pleaded guilty in March, was ordered to pay $85,000 restitution.

Banks, a 44-year-old Douglasville resident, pleaded guilty in August 2014 and was sentenced in June 2017 to 20 years and two months in prison, five years of supervised release and $85,000 restitution.

He is currently in custody at a federal prison in Arkansas, records show.