EAST MOUNTAIN PARKWAY – A large amount of various drugs were confiscated during a traffic stop on East Mountain Parkway on Sunday night, with the driver and a passenger both arrested.
According to the arrest citations, on February 25, Magoffin County Sheriff Department Deputy Neil Watson was patrolling on Burning Fork Road when he observed a vehicle with one headlight traveling east, also noting that the driver was not wearing a seatbelt. He reportedly pulled behind the vehicle and followed it onto the Mountain Parkway traveling eastbound, at which time he initiated a traffic stop.
When Deputy N. Watson approached the vehicle, he reportedly detected an extremely strong smell of marijuana, according to the citation. He asked the driver for his operator’s license, noting that the driver was shaking while retrieving his license. He ran the license number through dispatch, with the driver identified as Enrique Beard, 39, of Lexington, who was wanted on a warrant out of Fayette County.
Deputy N. Watson contacted Deputy Donavon Watson and asked him and his K-9 unit to come to the location. While they waited for them to arrive, he asked Beard to step out of the vehicle and empty his pickets on the back of the car, then detained him, with dispatch confirming Fayette County would extradite. Beard was placed in the back of the police cruiser and asked if there were any drugs in the vehicle, but he would not answer, according to the citation.
The officer returned to the car and asked the passenger, identified as Brittany Mundy, 39, of Versailles, for her ID, and running it through dispatch, confirming she was not wanted. He asked Mundy if there were any drugs or narcotics in the vehicle, to which she stated not to her knowledge.
After receiving consent to search the vehicle and Deputy D. Watson and K-9 unit Nitra arriving to the scene, Mundy was asked to step out of the vehicle and the K-9 was deployed. While performing a free air sniff around the vehicle, the dog and her handler located a meth pipe, small bag of heroin, and a small bag of cocaine laying on the ground. Once those items were removed, the Nitra also made a positive hit on the vehicle for narcotics, according to the citation.
During the search of the vehicle, the officers found a gray, medium-sized duffel bag with various types and kinds of different narcotics, scales, etc., and then found another bag with methamphetamine and nine loose gabapentin pills. Both occupants were placed under arrest, according to the citation.
Beard is facing the following charges: prescription controlled substance not in proper container second or greater offense; buying or possessing drug paraphernalia; operating on suspended or revoked operator’s license; insufficient head lamps; failure to wear seatbelts; trafficking in controlled substance, first degree second or greater offense (greater than or equal to two grams methamphetamine); trafficking in controlled substance, second offense (carafentanil or fentanyl derivatives; trafficking in controlled substance second or greater offense (heroin); trafficking in controlled substance, first degree, second or greater offense (heroin); trafficking in controlled substance, second degree, second offense (greater than or equal to 20 dosage units of drug unspecified Schedule 3); trafficking in marijuana (less than 8 oz.) first offense; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; and persistent felony offender.
With the items on the ground found near the passenger side of the vehicle, plus a small red plastic baggie containing a white crystal rock-like substance believed to be methamphetamine in her purse, Mundy is charged with possession of a controlled substance, first degree, first offense (methamphetamine) and tampering with physical evidence.
At press time, both Mundy and Beard remain at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, with preliminary hearings set for March 4 at the Magoffin County Justice Center.
Editor’s Note: The indictment or charge of a person by a grand jury or otherwise is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
