Deputies with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office cuffed eight people in and around the Atmore area last weekend on various drug charges including a late-night raid, which netted marijuana and powder cocaine.

Last Friday, Keith Lamond Reynolds, 35, of 56 Ward Lane in Atmore, was arrested and charged with first-degree unlawful possession of marijuana. While on patrol on Martin Luther King Drive in Atmore, officers with the sheriff’s office noticed a vehicle turned into a driveway, but at least half of the vehicle was stuck out into the road. As the officer approached the vehicle, he noticed the driver was holding marijuana in his lap.

“He was charged with first-degree unlawful possession because he had a prior conviction for second-degree possession of marijuana,” ECSO Chief Deputy Mike Lambert said.

Reynolds is currently in the Escambia County Detention Center awaiting bond.

Traci Boyington Norwood, 22, of 879 Jack Springs Road in Atmore, was also arrested last Friday and charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance. According to authorities, around 10 a.m. that morning, deputies were conducting a routine driver’s license checkpoint at Harris and Crowe streets when Norwood drove up. Deputies noticed that she was acting suspicious and asked her if they could check her vehicle. She gave consent and volunteered that she had Xanax and didn’t have a prescription for them. She was arrested and transported to the Escambia County Detention Center to await a bond hearing.

Earlier at the same checkpoint, Lasherman L. Thomas, 28, of 465 Montgomery Street in Atmore, was stopped.

“The deputy approached the car and asked to see a driver’s license,” Lambert said. “He didn’t have a driver’s license because it had been suspended.”

Thomas voluntarily surrendered marijuana that he had in his pocket, and was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana because of a prior conviction of second-degree possession of marijuana and was currently on probation.

Saturday night, deputies kept busy ridding the streets of drugs with more drug-related arrests.

At approximately 10 p.m., Edwin Scott Bartley, 23, of 2453 Hillview Drive in Perdido, was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, crystal methamphetamine, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Deputy Michael Sanderson was on patrol in the Nokomis area near Mr. Green Jean’s store when he noticed a vehicle parked with no lights on. He went to check the suspicious vehicle.

“Other charges are still pending,” Lambert said. “The case will be presented to the Grand Jury.”

Half an hour later, deputies executed a search warrant at 176 Liberty Street in Atmore. Agents with the 21st Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force, the Atmore Police Department, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the K-9 unit of the Alabama Department of Corrections all participated in the arrest.

“There was an ongoing investigation of illegal narcotic activity at this site,” Lambert said. “Officers served a search warrant and arrested brothers, Sinclair Demetrius Brown, 24, Tylee Ikeem Brown, 20, and Renard Tycuryio Brown, 19.”

The siblings were all charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance for powder cocaine, first-degree unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. They are currently being detained in the Escambia County Detention Center.

Greggory Grace, 24, of 1967 James Road in Atmore, was also arrested on drug charges.

Michael Sanderson was on patrol in the Nokomis area around 3 a.m. when he noticed the subject walking down the road. The officer stopped and asked him for identification. The subject refused to obey a command by the officer to stop. After several commands the subject stopped and the officer observed that he dropped something on the ground. Deputy Sanderson detained Grace and picked what had been allegedly thrown on the ground. It was a plastic bag holding 24 small bags of marijuana.

According to Deputy Sanderson, the subject then asked him, “can’t you just act like you didn’t see it and throw it in the ditch?” Sanderson answered “no” and arrested Grace.

Grace is in the Escambia County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing and is charged with first-degree possession of marijuana.