By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
An Atmore woman remained in the county jail at midweek following her April 1 arrest by Flomaton police on a drug trafficking charge that occurred when she drove into Alabama with a large quantity of a substance that she bought legally in another state.
Flomaton Police Department Assistant Chief Dane Nesmith said Shaina Megan Brown, 33, was taken into custody after a traffic stop on Old Atmore Road turned up two bags of kratom. He said one of the bags contained “about 250 grams” of the leafy substance, which can produce either stimulant effects (in low doses) or sedative effects (in high doses), while the other was “about one-fourth full.”
Nesmith said Brown had earlier purchased the kratom in Florida, where it is legal. She became a felon when she crossed state lines back into Alabama, where it is not. (According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration website, kratom is legal in all 50 U.S. states except Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.)
According to the Escambia County Detention Center website, the Atmore woman remained in the facility late Monday, April 3, awaiting a bond hearing on one count of drug trafficking.
Three other Atmore residents and a Monroe County man were each also charged last week, by either Atmore police or county sheriff’s officers, with felony drug violations.
Pills a’plenty
Atmore police charged 22-year-old Thornton Douglas Sells of an Atmore address after three different types of illegal substances were found on his person during investigation of a March 29 domestic incident in the Rivercane area.
According to police reports, officers pulled over a vehicle matching a description witnesses provided of the one Sells was driving when the domestic incident took place.
A search of the vehicle yielded unspecified quantities of Ecstasy pills, Xanax bars (pills that can be broken into quarters or halves; also known as “zanies” or “planks”), and Adderall pills (an Attention Deficit Disorder medication that contains amphetamine or dextroamphetamine).
Sells, who is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance, was released from the county jail on bond March 30.
Conspiracy
Escambia County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) deputies arrested an Atmore man — Charles Ian Smedley, 32 — March 27 and charged him with criminal conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime.
No details of the arrest, including the names of the suspect’s alleged co-conspirators, were available by Tuesday’s press deadline. Smedley remained behind county bars early Tuesday, April 4, under a $20,000 bond.
Felony possession
ECSO deputies also arrested another Atmore man, Dylan Tyler Brown, 29, as well as 39-year-old Monroeville resident Daniel Caan McKinley, in separate felony drug possession incidents.
Brown was arrested March 29 and is charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance, second-degree possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released from the county jail March 30 after bond was posted on his behalf.
McKinley, who was charged March 27 with one count each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, was released from the county jail March 31 after bond was posted on his behalf.
No further details were immediately available regarding either arrest.