PONCHATOULA -- Narcotics officers with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested two men for running a methamphetamine lab, among other charges, Thursday night.

WWL-TV

32-year-old James Berfeygay (left) and 37-year-old George Bankston Jr. (right)

According to Blair Foster, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, 32-year-old James Berfeygay was arrested on the following charges: one count operation and creation of a clandestine methamphetamine lab, one count aggravated flight, one count possession of a controlled substance, one count battery on a police officer, one count criminal damage to sheriff’s department property, and three counts of resisting arrest.

Foster said Berfeygay’s accomplice, 37-year-old George Bankston Jr., was charged with: one count operation and creation of a clandestine methamphetamine lab, one count of resisting arrest, and outstanding warrant for FTA.

Berfeygay assaulted one narcotics agent and used his car to ram a sheriff’s department vehicle, Foster said. Bankston fled the scene but was later captured by sheriff’s deputies on I-12 between the Hammond Airport exit and the Hammond Ponchatoula exit.

Authorities confiscated all the drug paraphernalia as well as $700, Foster said. Berfeygay and Bankston were both booked in the Tangipahoa Parish Jail in Amite.