Police find $50,000 in meth in man's car after traffic stop
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on September 24, 2009 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Wayne County Sheriff's Office Capt. Tom Effler looks over three bags of crystal methamphetamine, known as "ice," that was confiscated during a traffic stop Wednesday on U.S. 117 South.
Full Size
James Williford
Nearly $50,000 worth of crystal methamphetamine was found sitting in the seat pocket of a Newton Grove man's vehicle on Wednesday, authorities said.
Deputy Mike Smiley of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said James Alton Williford, 45, of Clinton Street, was driving under the speed limit and was weaving in his lane on U.S. 117 South.
Smiley and Sgt. Matthew Miller said they were talking with Williford when they saw something suspicious in a seat pocket inside his vehicle.
The Aggressive Criminal Enforcement Team members had stopped Williford's red convertible Mazda at a service station at the intersection of George Street and U.S. 117 South.
The suspicious material inside the vehicle was enough to warrant a probable cause search on the vehicle, Smiley said.
Authorities also suspected that Williford was under the influence of methamphetamine.
"His pupils were constricted to about the size of a tip of a pin," Sgt. Miller said.
Two large bags of "ice" or "glass" were found, one in a seat's back pocket, another on Williford's person, the deputy said.
This type of methamphetamine is particularly potent, and is often produced in "superlabs," as opposed to small operations, lawmen have said.
Authorities say a typical street "dose" of "ice" methamphetamine is about one-tenth of a gram. Long-term users may suffer from tooth loss, drug-induced psychosis and a variety of other serious ailments, and possibly death, according to federal health authorities.
Williford was jailed under a $150,000 bond on two counts of trafficking in methamphetamine and maintaining a vehicle for controlled drugs, authorities said.