By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
After a months-long flurry of such arrests, the county jail’s website and Atmore police reports indicate that city officers made only one felony drug arrest over the seven-day period ending Monday, June 13.
Atmore Police Department Sgt. Darrell McMann reported that the June 10 arrest — like most of the drug arrests reported over the past several months by city police — stemmed from a traffic stop made on a vehicle exhibiting an obvious violation.
APD reports show that around 8:50 p.m. an officer spotted a vehicle that was being driven without lights. While the officer was questioning the vehicle’s driver, 34-year-old Willis Williams of Atmore, he noticed “what appeared to be a green, leafy substance on the center console,” and asked Williams to step out of the vehicle.
As Williams did so, the officer noticed “a large amount of residue on his shorts.” The officer also found a glass pipe with a similar residue in it. According to APD reports, the green, leafy substance on the console and the residue on the driver’s pants field-tested positive for Spice, and the residue in the pipe field-tested positive for methamphetamine. Possession of even trace amounts of either substance is a felony under Alabama law.
Williams was processed into the Escambia County Detention Center on one count each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. He was released from the jail Monday, June 13, on bond. The amount of that bond was not available by Tuesday’s press deadline.