By Karen Brooks
(Reuters) - The younger brother of country music superstar Randy Travis was hit with more charges on Thursday stemming from his arrest earlier in the week on suspicion of making and distributing methamphetamine from his home in North Carolina, authorities said.
David Brownlow Traywick, 50, was charged with possessing methamphetamine precursors, storing controlled substances and possessing drug paraphernalia. Those charges followed felony trafficking and conspiracy charges earlier in the week after police found a small manufacturing operation in his Marshville home during a search on Tuesday evening, said Captain Ronnie Whitaker of the Union County Sheriff's Office.
"It was more like a one-pot meth lab, like something some of these folks do in cars driving down the road," Whitaker said. "But it's still dangerous."
Officers were investigating a tip that Traywick, who was already facing a separate methamphetamine charge at the time of his arrest on Tuesday, was cooking meth in the home, Whitaker said.
Marshville, where the six Traywick children were raised, including singer Travis, is about an hour southeast of Charlotte, N.C.
Traywick's wife, Jessica, and two other women were arrested on similar charges on Tuesday evening, Whitaker said.
The arrests come as Travis recovers in a Plano, Texas, hospital from brain surgery following a stroke and life-threatening heart condition.
Traywick's attorney could not be reached for immediate comment.
Drug trafficking charges in North Carolina carry minimum mandatory sentences. Depending on the amount allegedly being trafficked, sentences for meth trafficking could be anywhere from three to 18 years.
Traywick and his wife remained in jail on Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bond each.
Travis, 54, who has won numerous Grammy Awards and Country Music Awards, is no stranger to his own substance-related legal issues.
Earlier this year, the singer pleaded guilty and received probation on a drunken driving arrest that stemmed from a 2012 incident in which he crashed his car into a construction zone.
(Reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Scott Malone and Bob Burgdorfer)
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