By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A wheelchair-bound Atmore man is behind bars after a multi-agency raid on his Atmore residence turned up synthetic and natural marijuana, along with materials for packaging and distributing the illicit substances, and four firearms.
Austin James Gray Jr., 43, was taken into custody on numerous charges when agents discovered the illegal substances, along with two rifles and two handguns, at Gray’s Franklin Street home.
Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks announced last week that officers and agents with the Escambia County and Monroe County divisions of the Alabama Drug Enforcement Task Force, Atmore Police Department, Poarch Drug Task Force, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and Alabama Department of Corrections executed a search warrant last Wednesday, August 26, at the residence.
Brooks said the horde of lawmen entered the residence around midday and found a duffel bag that contained approximately 1,610 grams of synthetic cannabis (Spice), 125 grams of marijuana, scales for weighing the contraband, and baggies for packaging and distributing it.
According to an employee of the Escambia County Detention Center’s booking and release division, Gray is being held under total bonds of $1.5 million.
He is charged with one count each of trafficking in synthetic marijuana, first-degree possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and being a certain person forbidden to possess a firearm.
Gray is also charged with probation violation, for which no bond is allowed, and remained in jail as midweek neared.