Two Powell men have been charged with conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine in recent months.

The cases against 39-year-old Richard L. Jones and 25-year-old Cole J. Mattson are separate, but charging documents indicate the allegations are connected.

After his Oct. 2 arrest, Mattson reportedly told Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents that he had only been helping Jones make meth. Meanwhile, prior to his Oct. 8 arrest, Jones similarly claimed to have only been helping someone else make the drug.

Mattson and Jones are alleged to have been involved in cooking meth using a “one bottle” or “shake-and-bake” method, in which relatively small amounts of the drug are made inside pop bottles or other containers filled with toxic chemicals.

Jones is charged with four felony counts: possessing materials with the intent to engage in a clandestine lab operation; possessing equipment or supplies for a clandestine lab operation; supplying materials for a clandestine lab; and conspiring to operate a clandestine lab between July 2 and Sept. 4.

As of Monday, he remained jailed in Cody with bail in the case set at $30,000 cash. He will soon enter a plea to the four new charges in Park County’s District Court.

The Park County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is also seeking to revoke Jones’ bond on an unrelated 2014 case where he allegedly had someone in California ship him close to an ounce of meth.

Mattson, meanwhile, is charged with two felony counts of supplying materials for a clandestine laboratory and conspiring to operate a clandestine lab, all between Aug. 20 and Oct. 2.

He’s being held on a $30,000 cash bond. A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for Friday.

Park County prosecutors are also seeking to revoke Mattson’s bond on a pending 2013 burglary charge, which alleges he broke into the Back Street Pub.

Charging documents indicate the investigation got rolling in early September, when a Powell Drug pharmacist reported that Jones had made repeated purchases of pseudoephedrine, a decongestant that can be used in making meth. DCI agents David Ferguson, of the Powell Police Department, and Phil Johnson, of the Park County Sheriff’s Office, found that Jones had bought pseudoephedrine at least eight times between July 2 and Sept. 2.

The next day, the DCI agents had the City of Powell Sanitation Department collect the trash bins near Jones’ residence on North Clark Street. Inside, DCI found a couple empty bottles and tubing that appeared to have been used in making meth, Ferguson wrote.

That same day, DCI also searched the trash behind Mattson’s East Fifth Street apartment. There, they found bottles, tubing and coffee filters that similarly appeared to have been used to make meth, according to an affidavit from Johnson. The residue on the tubing tested positive for meth.

Court documents do not explain why both residences were searched at that time, but Jones apparently had been living at Mattson’s place off and on.

Another search of Mattson’s trash on Oct. 1 — spurred by a tip from a confidential source — turned up more apparent remains of meth making, including a bottle that held burned balls of lithium strips and Coleman camp fuel, Johnson wrote.

DCI searched Mattson’s actual apartment the following day with a hazardous materials team. They found a makeshift straw with meth residue, syringes (that Mattson said were Jones’) and a coffee filter, pill grinder, small white granules and a punctured pop bottle cap that agent Johnson described as being meth-related.

After being arrested, Mattson told DCI agents that he wanted them “to know that he ‘wasn’t a huge part of this, making dope,’” Ferguson wrote.

Mattson allegedly admitted to buying components for making meth, like cold compress packs, lye and batteries. However, Mattson said he was buying the materials for Jones, who would then cook the drug and sometimes give him some.

“I know he’s made it at my house a couple times and I’m pretty sure he made it last week in my house,” Mattson reportedly told DCI on Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, Jones reportedly told DCI in early September he knew how to make meth, but that he only had helped buy supplies like pseudoephedrine while in Powell.

When agent Ferguson asked him about the apparent meth-making equipment found in his trash on North Clark Street, Jones reportedly said it came from helping someone else — identified in charging documents only as “another suspect.”

“He makes it,” Jones reportedly told agent Ferguson. “I helped him out once or twice with the batteries, because he was having problems with them. Other than that I don’t make the (stuff).”

(Jones did acknowledge also helping rig the tubing on the plastic bottle found in his trash, Ferguson wrote.)

By “helping with the batteries,” Jones was apparently referring to cutting them open and extracting their lithium strips for use in the manufacturing process.

To get the search warrant for Mattson’s apartment on Oct. 2, DCI used information from a confidential source who claimed they had helped Mattson make meth by cutting up batteries for lithium. It is not clear whether this confidential source — identified in charging documents only as “CS2” — was Jones or someone else. Similarly, it’s not clear whether the “suspect” Jones claimed to be only helping was Mattson or another man.

According to Jones’ alleged statements to DCI, small amounts of meth were being produced. He said the average cook yielded about two grams. For context, that’s about .0022 pounds and would be a misdemeanor amount in a case involving only allegations of possession.

Court records say this is not the first time DCI has been told that Jones was cooking meth.

After Jones was arrested for allegedly ordering the shipment of meth last year, Jones’ co-defendant, Cassandra Rodriguez, told DCI agents she had seen Jones make meth inside a bottle in her North Clark Street garage.

That had prompted a search of Rodriguez’s residence on Halloween 2014, but did not lead to any additional charges.