Police Make Drug Bust; Seize Cash

An officer making a routine traffic stop Wednesday night has led to the arrest of a Chattanooga man on drug charges.

According to an affidavit of complaint, the officer saw a 2002 Chevy Impala with an expired temporary tag travelling down Ringgold Road. When the officer stopped the car and spoke with the driver, 42-year-old Lawrence Curtis Dill, she noticed that he was sweating and had “pinpointed pupils.”

When the officer got Dill out of the car, the report states, he admitted to having smoked marijuana and that there was a small amount of pot in his car. Dill retrieved two small bags of marijuana from the car, the report states. Dill then told the officer that there were pills in a “flower” bag in the front seat of the vehicle. The report states that police found 28 Oxycodone pills, 20 Hydrocodone pills and eight multi-colored tablets that later tested positive for MDMA (Ecstacy).

The report states that Dill told the officer that there was $1,000 in one dollar bills in the trunk of the car that he was saving for his daughter. Police located a plastic bag that had 25 rolls of U.S. currency that was secured with different colored rubber bands. In addition, Dill had $621 in his wallet. Further examination of the money in the trunk revealed five dollar and 10 dollar bills rolled inside the singles.

The report states that the officer believed the money, a total of $2,008, was from the proceeds of drug sales and was therefore seized.

Dill, of a 23rd Street address, was charged with Possession of MDMA for Resale, Possession of Hydrocodone for Resale and Possession of Oxycodone for Resale and taken to the Hamilton County Jail. He is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on June 14.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.