A man accused of building a drug lab in the basement of a couple’s house on North Whidbey claims he was just making botanical perfumes and soaps.

Prosecutors charged Clinton E. Wood, a 29-year-old Coupeville resident, in Island County Superior Court Jan. 21 with residential burglary.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Anderson said he expects to amend the charge to possibly include a drug-related count after receiving results from the state crime lab. At this point, he said, investigators aren’t sure what Wood was making.

“I’m fairly confident that it was not soap,” he said.

Island County Sheriff Mark Brown previously said the small, clandestine lab may be related to the manufacturing of psychedelic drugs. The police report indicated the suspect may have been making “red phosphorus based methamphetamine” or possibly a derivative of cocaine or tar heroin.

The clandestine operation was discovered after the homeowner, who’s spending the winter in another state, noticed that his electricity bill was unusually high. He asked a neighbor to look in the house; the neighbor discovered a “drug lab” inside a basement bathroom.

Deputy Lane Campbell drove out to the house and saw Clinton Wood pull his truck into the garage.

He contacted Wood, who explained that his mother was the “cleaning lady” and allowed him to take showers in the house since he didn’t have running water at his place, Campbell wrote.

Wood said it wasn’t a drug lab in the basement but that he was making perfumes and soaps using his neighbor’s lilac and rosemary bushes, the report states. Campbell noted that there was no smell of botanics and the set-up consisted of water jugs, beakers, lab glassware, tubing, an electric agitator, a scale and chemicals.

Clinton’s mother, 64-year-old Cynthia Lee Wood, showed up at the house during the investigation. She said she thought her son was making botanical oil but hadn’t seen the lab, Campbell wrote.

The Washington State Patrol’s SWAT team and the Department of Ecology responded to the scene to analyze and dismantle the lab, according to the sheriff’s office.

Both Clinton and Cynthia Wood were arrested at the scene. Anderson said he’s waiting for the lab results to make a charging decision related to Cynthia Wood.