SALYERSVILLE – A Floyd County man was arrested in Salyersville last week on charges related to drug trafficking after police confiscated quantities of opiates and over $5,000 during a traffic stop.
According to the arrest citation, at approximately midnight on June 23, Salyersville Police Department Mike Nickels was patrolling on the Mountain Parkway when a vehicle passed him with the rear license plate not illuminated, so Nickels initiated a traffic stop.
Nickels asked the driver, identified as Stephen Moore, 44, of Garrett, Kentucky, to step out of the vehicle and if there were anything illegal in the car or on his person. Moore reported gave verbal consent for Nickels to conduct a pat-down and search of the vehicle.
According to the citation, Nickels found a small pill bottle in Moore’s sock, containing 9 tablets of Oxymorphone 20 mg tablets, a Schedule II controlled substance, and three tables of Oxymorphone 40 mg tablets, also a Schedule II controlled substance, as well as $5,495 in cash.
During his investigation, Nickels noticed there was green pill residue in Moore’s nostrils and on his nose, with Moore admitting to snorting a Roxy-15 two hours prior to the traffic stop, with Moore failing a field sobriety test, according to the citation.
Nickels also found a straw on the driver’s side pocket of the center console, an empty pill bottle with a prescription label for Oxymorphone 20 mg tablets with someone else’s name on it.
Moore was arrested and taken to the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center, where he has since been released, pending future court dates. He is currently charged with the following: rear license not illuminated; first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, first offense (greater than or equal to 10 dosage units of opiates); first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, first offense (less than or equal to 10 dosage units of opiates); buying or possessing drug paraphernalia; operating motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance, first offense; and prescription of a controlled substance not in proper container, first offense.
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.
