LAPLACE — Charges were dropped last month for a LaPlace man arrested in 2015 for creating and operating a meth lab.

According to the St. John the Baptist Parish Clerk of Court’s Office, prosecutors abandoned their case against David Gardner due to insufficient evidence.

District Attorney Bridget A. Dinvaut said the charges were dropped in the “interest of justice.”

Gardner, 48, was arrested at his home July 28, 2015, on Golfview Drive following a month-long narcotics investigation, according to the Sheriff Office, which said deputies discovered a small amount of crystal methamphetamine and evidence of methamphetamine cooks and drug paraphernalia used in the manufacture and sale of meth at the home.