Neighbors reported a strange smell coming from a home in East Bernstadt. Laurel county sheriff's deputies found operating meth labs inside the home located just feet away from a church and a school.

"When they knocked on the door, the guy came to the door wearing a surgical mask. He slammed the door, locked it and wouldn't let the deputies in," says deputy Gilbert Acciardo.

At the same time, a female inside of this home on School Street tried to make a run for it out the back door,"She was captured. We made entry into the residence and found the other subject in a back room," adds Acciardo.

Sheriff's deputies arrested 54-year-old, William Robinson and 54-year-old, Debbie Jones after discovering what was inside, "We found products that are used to make methamphetamine."

With a church next door and a church across the street, Robinson and Jones now face charges for trafficking a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of school.

"Within 800 feet. You could throw a softball and hit the elementary school, it's that close," Acciardo says.

Also, just across the street from the operating meth lab is the home of George Fields, "I think it's a big concern."

Fields figured living near a school and a church,that this kind of thing wouldn't be happening but after 30 years he's grown frustrated with the drug activity.

"It's bad, you don't like to see it but it just goes on," Fields says.

"We've put such an effort into methamphetamine to eradicating it that it's just about disappeared in laurel county. This is the first surface of methamphetamine in some time," says Acciardo.

Fields says he has noticed the Laurel County Sheriff's Office cracking down on the drug problem and has confidence things will improve.

Robinson and Jones are facing several charges including manufacturing methamphetamine, trafficking a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of marijuana, and resisting arrest.