If not for texting a driving, a suspected repeat drug offender might be selling his stash on the streets. Instead, Donald Pickett is back behind bars at the Habersham County Detention Center and the drugs he was reportedly hauling are out of his hands.
Cornelia police arrested the 57-year-old Atlanta man Sunday after they spotted him holding what appeared to be a cell phone while driving. After stopping the 2018 Dodge Ram 1500 truck for distracted and erratic driving, officers found a large quantity of suspected illegal drugs inside the vehicle.
The late-night stop near the Race Trac gas station on GA 385/Business US 441 yielded a sizeable quantity of marijuana in various forms, police say. Officers seized:
- 7 pounds of raw marijuana
- 2.5 pounds of THC wax
- 1.5 pounds of Kief- 300-gram pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes
- 128 individually packaged edible marijuana gummies
The drugs have an estimated street value of $15,000. In addition to the drugs, officers seized $3,915 in cash.
A ‘simple traffic stop’
“This arrest was made off of a simple traffic stop,” emphasizes Cornelia Police Chief Jonathan Roberts.
“Law Enforcement gets a bad rap sometimes for enforcing traffic laws. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, ‘With all the drugs and robbers out on the street you guys have nothing better to do?’ Well, this is a prime example of why we take the enforcement of traffic laws so seriously.”
Police also arrested a passenger in the truck, 48-year-old Constance Herbs of New York. Officers charged both with multiple felony possession charges and intent to distribute. Pickett was also charged with violating Georgia’s hands-free law and DUI refusal.
“If he would not have been texting and driving there is a good chance he would have made it where he was going and the drugs would have been on the street very soon,” Chief Roberts says.
Repeat offender
Authorities don’t know where the pair were headed, but this isn’t Pickett’s first time being arrested in Habersham. On November 22, 2020, a Georgia state trooper pulled him over in Tallulah Falls and discovered more than $20,000 worth of illegal drugs in his car including five pounds of marijuana, 500 grams of THC wax, THC oil, and THC gummies.
In that incident, officials charged Pickett with DUI, distracted driving, and possession with intent to distribute. He was out of jail on bond awaiting trial at the time of his latest arrest. According to Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Christian, his case was due to go to trial next month.
Soon he will have two drug cases pending on the court calendar.
“Unfortunately, this is just a ding, not even a dent, in the area’s drug problem,” says Roberts.
“We will continue to be vigilant and professional and do our best to provide a safer place to live and play and make it safer for all of us to drive up and down the road. We are working very closely with neighboring agencies to push this stuff out of our area. We don’t want it, the citizens don’t want it and enough is enough.”
The Cornelia Police Department’s anonymous drug tip line phone number is 706-894-3077.
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