Ex-security guard pleads guilty to cooking meth in government lab

• Christopher Bartley face up to 20 years in prison
• Charge stemmed from a 18 July explosion and he resigned next day

A former security officer at a federal laboratory in Maryland pleaded guilty on Friday to trying to make methamphetamine at work last month, setting off an explosion in what his lawyer has described as an unauthorized experiment.

Christopher Bartley, 41, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, pleaded guilty in US district court to one count of attempting to make the drug while working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), also in Gaithersburg.