An Athens woman who apparently was passing through Eatonton ended up spending a little time in the Putnam County jail on drug charges, according to jail reports.
Eatonton Police Department officer Alex Rickey stopped a car on the U.S. 441 Eatonton Bypass shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 1 because the windows of the vehicle were tinted “very dark,” Rickey wrote in his report.
While speaking with the driver of the car through the driver’s side window, officer Rickey noted the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. The driver, Imani Lace Gilkey, who had a Missouri driver’s license, admitted to Rickey she had “a joint” in the car, but nothing else.
Officer Chris Detweiler stood with the driver while Rickey went around to the passenger side window to speak with the passenger, Naajia Azza Muhammad. She told the officer she was not aware of anything illegal in the vehicle. Rickey pointed out to her that he already knew about the joint and asked if the bag in her lap was hers, and she said it was, the report reveals.
Rickey asked if he could check the bag, and Muhammad opened it.
“I immediately noticed a digital scale and metal grinder in the bag,” Rickey wrote in his report.
When the officer asked what the white residue on the scale was, Muhammad reportedly said “mushrooms.”
A further search of the vehicle revealed a black bag, which Muhammad said was also hers. The bag contained four individual bags with white substance as well as a glass smoking pipe and rolling papers. Muhammad said the white powder in the bags “should be cocaine and molly,” Rickey wrote in the report, noting that “molly” is MDMA or “ecstasy.”
As Rickey was placing Muhammad in handcuffs to arrest her, she stopped him, said she needed to give him something and reached in her pocket and handed over a small bag containing what was believed to be cocaine.
Putnam County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Donovan and K-9 Nix were called to continue searching the 2017 Chevrolet Malibu and luggage that had been pulled from the car. A search warrant was obtained, and the search revealed in addition to the above-mentioned items, other drug paraphernalia and drugs including Xanax, suspected methamphetamine, Lorazepam, LSD, chocolate THC edibles, pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes, and 12 unknown pills.
Muhammad, 26, of Riverbend Parkway, Athens, was charged with possession of drug-related objects, four counts of possession of a Schedule I controlled substance (LSD, THC edibles, Lorazepam), possession of cocaine, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana. She was released on a $36,000 property bond.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of the driver, Gilkey, as well, but she had not been taken into custody by the newspaper’s print time. Gilkey, 28, of Baker Street, St. Louis, Missouri, is facing the same charges as Muhammad, Cardwell said. Anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts should call Eatonton Police Department at 706-485-3551.