MARIETTA, Ga. — A traffic stop in the heart of Marietta led to the discovery of drugs and guns for sale inside a woman’s car.
A Marietta police officer pulled over Nakyla Mormon of Smyrna at Lawrence St. and N. Fairground Street around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
According to her arrest warrant, she had two guns with her as well as crack cocaine cookies, cocaine, meth and weed.
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One of the pistols in her car had an altered serial number.
Plus, a 2017 drug conviction prohibited her from carrying guns.
She faces nine charges in connection with each of those crimes.
People who live and work in the area where she was pulled over say it’s insulting.
“It’s always a slap in the face,” Missy Owen said.
Owen owns an addiction recovery center called The Zone.
It’s a block away from the arrest site.
“Relapse is so prevalent, and withdrawal is so hard. So, I think sometimes we’re targeted, and I think a lot of recovery centers across the United States are targeted because they know there are some easy targets there,” Owens said.
Officer Chuck McPhilamy with Marietta Police met Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco where the bust happened to show her around.
“Less than a few blocks away from here you have Park Street Elementary School, you have neighborhoods with young children playing. The area right behind me has a daycare. This is an area a couple of blocks away from the square, near the heart of Marietta,” McPhilamy said. “This couldn’t have been a worse spot if you had picked it.”
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A lab is still testing the batch of drugs police seized in this case.
But Owen said it comes at a time when Cobb County Public Health has been warning of a spike in overdose deaths.
Some 173 people were killed here last year. Another 167 were killed in 2021.
Owen lost her own son to addiction in years before that.
“This is an ongoing war that has no discrimination, no boundaries, no concern for morality or any of that,” Owen said.
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