A Cookeville woman and Monterey man were arrested on multiple drug charges last week after a police search found significant quantities of various drugs inside a car they were reportedly cleaning.
Britny Michale Thompson, of Sunflower Lane in Cookeville, and Jacob Benjamin Snyder, of Monterey Highway, were arrested in the incident.
Cookeville Police Officer Daniel Trivette said he was patrolling the area when he noticed the doors and trunk of a 1996 Toyota Camry all standing open in front of the Sunflower Lane address of Thompson.
“I observed Jacob Snyder leaned inside the trunk of the car with doors of the car open. I also observed [Britny] Thompson leaned inside the front passenger side of the vehicle moving things around,” says Officer Trivette’s report of the incident.
The officer approached the two, who gave him consent to speak with him and provided identifications with which the officer was able to run a warrants check.
http://liarcatchers.com/drugdogsweeps.html
While the officer spoke with the two, he said he noticed Thompson “moving things around” in the front passenger floor board of the car.
The officer asked Snyder what they were doing, and he said Snyder told him Thompson lived at the address and that the two of them were cleaning out the car he had just bought three days prior.
“I did notice that the inside of the vehicle looked fairly clean and that there were small plastic bags full of trash around the car,” Officer Trivette reports.
Both Snyder and Thompson informed the officer that they had prior drug charges and both reportedly admitted to him of using methamphetamine.
“Ms. Thompson told me that she had a pending promotion to manufacture methamphetamine charge in court,” Officer Trivette’s report says.
The officer said he asked the two multiple times if there were any illegal substances in the vehicle, “and each time they both started looking at the front passenger seat before answering that there was nothing illegal inside.”
The officer’s report says he asked Snyder to search the vehicle, but that Snyder kept evading the question, finally allowing permission but that he didn’t want the officer “to tear the car up.
“I asked him if he would be fine with a drug dog running around the car, and he said that would be fine,” Officer Trivette’s report continues.
Officer Heather Marshall arrived on the scene for backup and Thompson agreed to allow the female officer to search her person, and removed a recently used syringe from her person before the search began.
“I asked Ms. Thompson if she would allow me to search her purse due to the fact that she told me she was a drug user, had pending drug charges and had a used syringe concealed on her person,” Officer Trivette’s report says.
She consented to let the officer search her purse, according to the report.
At that time, Officer Dustin Hensley arrived on the scene with his K-9 narcotics partner, which allegedly alerted immediately to the presence of narcotics on the front passenger side of the vehicle “and jumped onto a safe sitting on the front floorboard of the vehicle.”
Upon the K-9 alert, the officers conducted a search of the vehicle.
Behind a panel on the front dash, officers discovered a baggy of white powder as well as various pills.
Multiple tools and items were discovered in the trunk of the car, including a Fortress safe and another safe back, according to the police report.
The Fortress safe was unlocked, and inside it officers discovered multiple syringes, various drug paraphernalia and multiple capsules containing a brown powder believed to be methamphetamine that field tested positive for the presence of ephedrine, as well as several baggies of white and brown powders that also field tested positive for methamphetamine. And one of those baggies, according to the officer’s report, contained several grams of the illegal substance.
Both the safe and the safe bag were both locked when the K-9 initially alerted upon them, but both Snyder and Thompson denied ownership of the locked compartments.
“I believed that both subjects had control over the safe, and they were trying to separate themselves from and abandoning ownership of the contents of the safe,” Officer Trivette writes in his report. The safe bag was easily opened, and inside it officers discovered more syringes, drug paraphernalia, and powder believed to be methamphetamine.
Due to the type and quantity of items found in the search of the vehicle, Officer Trivette reports, he believed the two were probably selling methamphetamine and that they had also started the process to initiate the manufacture of methamphetamine.
Both were charged with possession of a controlled substance for resale and initiation to manufacture methamphetamine.
Thompson’s booking information also indicates a Meth Free Tennessee drug act charge.
Snyder is being held on a $20,000 bond, while Thompson is being held on a $55,000 bond.
The initial court date for both is set for this coming Wednesday, and the initial court date for Thompson’s Meth Free Tennessee charge is set for July 16.
