A routine traffic stop led to East Ellijay Police arresting one man for drugs and drug-related objects last week.
According to a police report, an SUV was pulled over after an officer noticed its brake lights weren’t working. A license check for the driver came back valid, but the name given by the vehicle’s passenger came back as “driver not found,” the report states.
The deputy noticed both the female driver and male passenger becoming increasingly nervous and, after the driver consented to the vehicle being searched, the male passenger did not want to step out of the car and became more upset, per the police report.
After the passenger, who had identified himself as “Johnny Mitchell,” was detained during investigation of a black bag on his person, another officer who’d been called for backup recognized the man as Tommy Lee.
There were felony warrants already out for Lee, a local resident, noted Police Chief Larry Callahan.
“The county had been trying to serve warrants on him for a good while,” Callahan said.
A search of the black bag resulted in recovery of a large Ziploc bag containing methamphetamine, four small bags with methamphetamine, one small bag containing an unknown brown substance and several drug-related objects. More than $2,000 was also confiscated, and the brown substance will be sent to a crime lab to be tested, the report states.
Callahan described the amount of drugs that were recovered as pretty significant. The brown substance is suspected to be heroin, but the lab report had not come back yet, he noted.
Lee was arrested on several drug charges including possession, sale/deliver/distribution and possession of drug-related objects, as well as obstruction of a law enforcement officer. The driver was not charged or arrested.