A “Breaking Bad” wannabe tried to set up a drug lab in a Westchester County hotel — but his scheme went off the rails when he accidentally sparked a fire, badly burning himself and setting off the sprinkler.
New Rochelle police and firefighters responded to a fire alarm at the Marriott Residence Inn at New Roc City shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday, only to find the hotel’s sprinklers had largely doused the flames inside a seventh-floor room, police said.
But that was only the start of things.
“During the initial investigation, officers found evidence inside the room indicating the presence of a clandestine drug laboratory,” New Rochelle Police Capt. J. Collins Coyne said in a press release.
Police recovered “quantities” of cocaine along with items used to process it into crack cocaine, according to Coyne.
“The discovery prompted the immediate recall of New Rochelle Detectives, who began working diligently to identify and locate the individual responsible,” he added.
The trail led police to a Queens hospital, where 47-year-old Pedro Marte, a Manhattan resident, was being treated for serious burns to his right arm, torso and foot, according to the department.
New Rochelle detectives linked Marte to the suburban hotel blaze, had him moved to another hospital elsewhere in the Big Apple and charged him with criminal possession of a controlled substance, arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, police said.
He is listed in stable condition, but police will not say what hospital he is being held at.
“It is believed the fire was likely sparked by the suspect’s illicit activities within the hotel room, though the exact cause remains under investigation,” Coyne said.