WINDHAM — The state’s first methamphetamine laboratory of the year was discovered recently in Windham, which police allege involves a man connected to a similar incident in Oxford in 2015.

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and Windham Police announced, in a press release, they arrested a Gray couple.

Charles McNeice, 46, and Nicole Adams, 33, were charged with unlawful operation of a methamphetamine laboratory.

On Jan. 11, Windam Police were dispatched to the area of 23 Tower Road because of a suspicious vehicle, according to the release. Officers found the vehicle and a box near it with ingredients used to manufacture meth, police said.

Members of the MDEA Clandestine Laboratory Enforcement Team responded to assist Windham Police and additional manufacturing items were located in the vehicle – ammonium nitrate and pseudoephedrine tablets, police said.

Police allege their investigation revealed McNeice and Adams purchased the ingredients prior to officers arriving and were preparing to cook the drug.

McNeice will appear in Cumberland County Court on Friday, March 25. He remained in Cumberland County Jail as of Monday afternoon on $5,000 cash bail for his most recent charges and $1,000 bail cash bail for previous charges out of York County.

Adams made bail and was scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. today, Thursday, Jan. 28, in Cumberland County Court.

Last year, McNeice was arrested for felony aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine and violating conditions of release in June 2015 after Oxford Police stopped his car on Route 26 because it had no exhaust system, according to Sun Media archives.

Police found ingredients used to manufacture the highly-addictive drug, including pseudoephedrine, ammonium nitrate, sodium chloride and lithium, Maine State Police Public Information Officer Stephen McCausland said at the time.

After McNeice’s June 2015 arrest, MDEA agents searched two wooded locations in Gray where they allege McNeice and his passenger, 33-year-old Joshua Mershimer, had tried to dispose of a bag of chemicals used to make meth. McNeice had been out on bail from these charges until his arrest on Jan. 11.

McNeice failed to appear at his Jan. 7 court date in Paris for the June 2015 charges.