By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Atmore Police Department officers arrested five people on felony drug possession charges during four incidents that occurred over the seven-day period from June 7 to 14. Seized were an array of illicit substances that included marijuana, magic mushrooms, methamphetamine and liquid THC.
The series of arrests began on June 7, as Shneirdre Evett Neal, 49, was preparing to enter Atmore Municipal Court. When a court security officer searched the Atmore woman for weapons, he discovered three glass pipes, each with burn marks. At least one tested positive for marijuana; at least one tested positive for meth.
Neal was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was released June 8 on $5,000 bond.
A Pensacola man was next to be arrested, and he had the most varied inventory of illegal substances.
Police reports show that a vehicle driven by 30-year-old John Fredrick Schrader was pulled over June 9 for an unspecified equipment violation. A search of the vehicle turned up a “significant amount” of marijuana in the console, as well as a jar of dried psilocybin mushrooms, a glass pipe with residue that tested positive for methamphetamine, a bong and two bottles of liquid THC.
Schrader now faces two counts of possession of a controlled substance (meth and THC) and one count each of first-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was processed into the county jail, from which he was released the next day after a $10,000 bond was posted on his behalf.
The other three arrests took place in the predawn hours of Saturday, June 14.
Allen Dale Garvin, 61, of Atmore was charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance, second-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia after he apparently passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle.
Officers found Garvin “severely intoxicated and unsteady on his feet.” They also found a glass pipe with residue that tested positive for meth, as well as a grinder with a small amount of marijuana in it.
According to an employee of the Escambia County Detention Center’s booking and release division, the Atmore man remained in jail Tuesday morning (June 15) after being charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance, second-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The other incident resulted in the arrests of a Baldwin County man and a local man on meth possession charges.
Police reports show that an APD officer spotted a pickup truck with “several equipment violations.” When the officer activated his vehicle’s blue lights, the pickup slowed and a man later identified as James Alex Vice, 23, of Atmore jumped out and fled.
A baggie containing a substance that tested positive for meth was found in the pocket of the driver, 27-year-old Matthew Connor Burt of Bay Minette. A search of the vehicle turned up another baggie with a substance that tested positive for meth, along with “several pipes of the type commonly used to smoke meth.”
Burt and Vice were each charged with possession of a controlled substance. Burt was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Each was released on bond Monday afternoon (June 14), according to a jail spokesperson.