A Salem man who set up a methamphetamine lab in his garage and surrounded it with surveillance cameras was convicted Friday of two drug charges.

Anthony Jay Reynolds, 47, as part of an agreement entered pleas of no contest to charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while in possession of methamphetamine. A third charge of possession of methamphetamine was dropped.

The charges stemmed from a raid on Reynolds’ home on Burma Road in Salem in July.

According to a summary of the evidence Friday by Salem Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Marshall Harrell, Salem and state police raided the home on Burma Road first, and then noticed black smoke pouring from the chimney of a detached garage.

The police converged on the garage, and Reynolds came out peaceably, Harrell said, but police found a soda bottle of “sludge” — which she described as a one-pot cooking operation — that had been tossed into a fire in the garage’s woodstove. They also found other meth-making ingredients and another bottle of sludge, which proved to be methamphetamine.

Police also discovered video cameras around the property wired to monitors inside the garage, Harrell said. In the basement of the house, where Reynolds lived, police discovered nine firearms, including a 9 mm handgun, and a variety of ammunition. More ammunition was found in the garage, according to Harrell.

Reynolds faces up to 45 years in prison when he’s sentenced by Circuit Judge William Broadhurst in June.

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