A man released from prison eight months ago after serving time for operating a methamphetamine lab in Butler County is one of three people accused of the same crime.

The trio, which includes a brother and sister, allegedly used a Butler house as recently as December to cook up the dangerous and highly addictive drug.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office on Tuesday obtained arrest warrants for Ross M. Cammisa, 34, and Melissa M. Cammisa, 31, both of Butler; and James C. Kidd, 21, of Center Township.

All three defendants face a list of felonies in the investigation that culminated in a Dec. 12 raid of a two-story rental house on Elm Court where Ross Cammisa and his sister, Melissa, lived, authorities said.

The state police Clandestine Lab Response Team, with assistance from the state attorney general's office, searched the home and turned up evidence of the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Investigators, in court documents, described the operation as “one-pot” cooking, also known as the shake-and-bake method.

The practice is one by which methamphetamine is made in one vessel, typically a 2-liter soda bottle or plastic Gatorade bottle.

Cooks mix a number of potentially harmful chemicals together in the bottle and monitor it as the substances react. The by-products of meth labs can contaminate their surroundings with toxic fumes and highly explosive chemical compounds.

Common recipe ingredients include lithium, which is stripped from batteries; ammonia nitrate, which comes from cold packs; Coleman fuel; sodium hydroxide; pseudoephedrine, a decongestant; and water.

State narcotics agent Douglas Brink, who filed the charges, said investigators found many of those same items during the search of the Elm Court house.

The investigation began Nov. 17 when a Butler Township detective got a tip that Ross Cammisa was making the powerful stimulant methamphetamine, authorities said.

Later, two informants told authorities that Ross Cammisa was “hanging out and cooking methamphetamine” with Kidd, according to court documents.

Cammisa possibly knew that Kidd had experience with making the drug.

Kidd and two others in 2015 were arrested for running a meth lab out of a Summit Township mobile home where they were living.

He later pleaded guilty in the case and in May 2016 was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in the Butler County Prison with 18 months of probation. He received credit for 310 days already served.

According to prison records, he was released May 20.

State narcotics agents in November checked a national computerized database and learned that Ross and Melissa Cammisa had been buying large quantities of pseudoephedrine products.

Under the federal Combat Methamphetamine Act of 2005, all pseudoephedrine has to be kept behind the counter. Purchasers must show ID and are limited in how much they can buy per month and per year without a prescription.

During the investigation, Butler police Dec. 12 were called to the house on Elm Court for a disturbance. While there, officers noticed a clear plastic bottle containing a “bluish liquid” — a telltale sign of a possible meth lab.

Authorities took a closer look outside, including in a trash bin, and noticed a plastic grocery bag containing a cold compress bag that had been cut open.

They also found lithium battery packages and batteries that had been cut open, too.

The three defendants are each charged with manufacturing a controlled substance, conspiracy, operating a meth lab, possessing chemicals and other precursors with intent to manufacture a controlled substance, and risking a catastrophe, all felonies.

Additionally, they are all charged with misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance.