Breaking Bad comes to west London: suspected 'crystal meth factory' found in suburban house

Police have discovered what is thought to be a methamphetamine laboratory on a quiet west London street

The police team outside the property in Hanwell (Nigel Howard)

Police have discovered what is thought to be a methamphetamine laboratory on a quiet street in West London after being called to attend a “scuffle” between a tenant and the landlord.

Police were called to the four-bedroom house in Cawdor Crescent, Hanwell at 4pm on Tuesday following reports of a dispute between the owner and a tenant.

Upon entering the property, officers discovered equipment they believed was used to make the addictive class A drug which featured in the hit US TV series Breaking Bad, The Evening Standard has reported.

Airport worker Raj Shivraj, 59, told The Standard the man, said to be Iranian, had torn away pipes from the household plumbing and there was a “heavy smell of paint stripper in the air”.

He said: “The landlord lets out several rooms individually through an estate agent and neither of them had any idea what was going on. This guy moved in a few months ago and from what I saw wanted to start his own crystal meth lab business.

Some of the equipment used to produce the meth (Nigel Howard)

“He was very unsociable and the landlord had previously come round after this tenant blocked the drains with chemicals. When I went inside last week with the landlord and his son, the house was really messed up and all the stuff was set up where the tenant lived.

"The furniture was destroyed and the house smelled of drugs, like a heavy smell of paint stripper in the air."

A man has been arrested on suspicion of the production of methamphetamine hydrochloride. He is being detained in custody.

Police continue to conduct an investigation into the meth lab (Nigel Howard)