KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A woman from Detroit is in custody after Knox County deputies said they found more than a pound of methamphetamine and more than 2 pounds of fentanyl during a traffic stop.
According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office, deputies stopped a Lyft driver for a traffic violation around midnight on Jan. 26 at the exit ramp to Broadway from Interstate 640. Deputies said the passenger in the vehicle, identified as Jasmine Johnson, was traveling from Detroit to visit her mother.
The deputy said they noticed Johnson was traveling with a duffel bag, with the arrest report saying "it did not appear that Johnson possessed normal and significant items that a reasonable person would travel with from a different state to spend multiple days in another location."
The deputy called a K-9 unit to the scene to investigate, saying the K-9 conducted a "free-air sniff" in the area around the vehicle and alerted them to the presence of drugs. Deputies then searched the vehicle and the bag, saying they found more than a pound of suspected methamphetamine and more than two pounds of suspected fentanyl inside the bag. They said the bag contained only "a few items of clothing" otherwise.
Deputies said they interviewed Johnson, saying she told them she had transported drugs from Detroit to Atlanta, Cincinnati, and most recently Knoxville.
Johnson is facing two felony drug charges and is being held on a combined $50,000 bond.